Unbiased.co.uk, the professional advice website, today announces that it will be adding whole of market restricted advisers to its consumer facing ‘find a professional adviser’ search in preparation for changes introduced by the upcoming Retail Distribution Review. The move will coincide with the November launch of the new unbiased.co.uk website, designed to create an even better consumer journey and resulting in better matched consumer leads for advisers listed on the database. Advisers restricted by product provider will not be accepted on the unbiased.co.uk directory.
Karen Barrett, Chief Executive of unbiased.co.uk, comments, “RDR is changing the financial advice landscape and we are changing our business to ensure we remain relevant for the widest range of consumers, whilst still enabling consumers to access good quality advice through unbiased.co.uk.
“Our focus has always been on offering the best service possible for consumers and we remain committed to that. We believe adding restricted whole of market advisers is a natural extension of what we already do.
“We continue to believe that independent financial advice provides the best standard of advice but at the same time, we acknowledge there are people with specific advice needs, who will be well served by whole of market, restricted advisers. We will be clearly labelling adviser types on the search, giving people control over the type of adviser they are looking for and we will continue to educate consumers on the benefits of financial advice through our marketing and media campaigns, combining our partnership and affiliate programme with PR, marketing and digital promotion.”
Unbiased.co.uk is already the biggest ‘find a professional adviser’ search in the market, listing over 15,000 individual advisers and dealing with over 450,000 consumer searches every year. The company provides white label ‘find a professional adviser’ searches to over 60 organisations such as product providers, industry bodies and news sites and is the highest ranking professional advice search on Google’s search rankings. Adding restricted whole of market advisers will further strengthen unbiased.co.uk’s proposition for both consumers and advisers.
Unbiased.co.uk will continue to apply stringent selection criteria to verify any adviser applying to join the search. Unbiased.co.uk’s database is run against the FSA’s database on a weekly basis to ensure details listed are accurate and additional checks are performed to verify accreditations and other details. To be listed on the financial adviser database an adviser firm has to:
Have FSA authorisation for investment adviceOffer advice on a fee payment optionProvide whole of market advice in one or more advice areas, one of which must be investment advice.
Independent financial advisers and whole of market restricted advisers will be clearly labelled on search results and individual profiles when the service goes live in November. A basic listing on the unbiased.co.uk database is free but advisers have the option to purchase an enhanced listing, giving them additional features such as advert traffic statistics, web-enabled links and call back functions.
Whole of market restricted advisers can register their interest to join the unbiased.co.uk database bywww.unbiased.co.uk/restricted-adviser-registration.
IFAs looking to join the unbiased.co.uk database can do so at www.unbiased.co.uk/advertising
Karen Barrett continued: “Our focus remains on encouraging consumers to seek whole of market advice and to educate consumers on why advice is important. By using our search they will have access to quality, unbiased advisers who offer products from across the whole of the market.
“We maintain our principle that the basic listing on our search is free, to ensure consumers can choose from the largest pool of advisers on the market to find the best adviser for their needs. For those advisers paying for an enhanced listing, we strive to deliver value in the work we do with regards to lead generation and the consumer education we undertake, by reinvesting the money raised back into our campaigns to generate even more leads and positive PR and marketing.”
ENDS
For more information contact:
Anna Schirmer/ Emily Falla/ Maddy Morgan Williams, Lansons Communications: 020 7294 3682
For expert commentary or case studies from over 200 media-friendly advisers, journalists should visit www.unbiased.co.uk/bluebook.
Twitter: @unbiased_co_uk
LinkedIn: Unbiased.co.uk - Online networking for professional advisers
About unbiased.co.uk, the professional advice website
The unbiased.co.ukportal is a free and confidential UK-wide search matching consumers with local professional advisers. Their searches enable consumers to find professional advisers by postcode, area of specialism, qualification and payment method. In 2011, unbiased.co.ukfulfilled around 450,000 searches for local, professional advice.
Unbiased Ltd promotes the benefits of financial advice to consumers. Unbiased Ltd is supported by the following companies:
Unbiased Ltd - Registered Office: 12-14 Berry St, London, EC1V 0AU. Registered in England: No. 06775878)
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