Last week, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK referred the Investment Consultancy and Fiduciary Management* businesses to the Competition and Market Authority.
*Where the investment management and investment consultancy are provided by the same firm.
This action followed an investigation by the FCA which gave rise to a number of concerns including that: Trustees have limited ability to assess the quality of their advice or to compare services.
The link below is a summary from the FCA of their actions and their reasons for taking them.
In Ireland, some of the same issues can arise and trustees can avail of independent advice from specialist advisers to help them in this area.