24th June 2009

IFA defence Union news

The IFADU has decided that Alan Lakey, an IFA, should replace Evan Owen as Chairman. This has been with the full support and co-operation of Evan Owen who will continue with his behind the scenes machinations and investigatory work.

Alan is a working IFA andhas developed great expertise in his chosen niche areas of mortgages and protection to the point where other IFAs will contact him at his firm Highclere Financial Services to learn more.Alan has done much work in regard to highlighting the unfairness of many aspects of regulation today and will continue to do so in his role as IFADU Chairman.

IFADU is positioned somewhat differently from the far larger AIFA with one obvious distinction being that the Director General of AIFA cannot have been a practicing IFA. 

The IFADU is not seeking to compete with AIFA and indeed many of our supporters are AIFA members. It is felt that a different approach is needed when dealing with the myriad of regulations that the industry is cursed with. Not the least being the various RDR concoctions which are likely to have far-reaching negative repercussions for the typical adviser.

Lakey says that we need to acknowledge that as advisers we are unique. It is unlikely that any two advisers will agree on the variety of different approaches to regulation and the ombudsman. This does not mean that we cannot have a common thread of understanding and we should pursue the bigger issues with unity.

The IFADU is looking to expand its membership and benefit from the input of other IFA’s who wish to make a difference. Those who are interested in assisting the struggle should initially log on to http://www.ifadu.co.uk and make their interest known.