Otto Thoresen publishes final report of Thoresen Review of Generic Financial Advice

The final report from Otto Thoresen sets out a blueprint for a national money guidance service to “provide the people of the UK with the knowledge, understanding and confidence to make better decisions about money issues.”

The Report makes a number of recommendations including:

• A national Money Guidance service should be governed by the principles of impartiality, supportiveness, crisis prevention, universality, and should be sales-free.
• Money Guidance provided by the service should focus on giving people information and guidance on budgeting, saving and borrowing, protection, retirement planning, tax and welfare benefits, and jargon busting. It should stop short of recommending specific products.
• The most appropriate way of delivering a money guidance service is a partnership model, with a central body to direct the strategy, set standards and deliver some services, but with much of the service actually delivered by accredited partner organisations which could include those who already do such a good job helping people with their money.
• A UK-wide approach to Money Guidance should be delivered using a multi-channel approach - telephone, face-to-face and web-based service.
• The Financial Services Authority (FSA) should take forward the national Money Guidance service project.
• In view of the real benefits that would be delivered by a national Money Guidance service, the costs of providing the service should be equally split between the Government and the financial services industry.
• The industry's share should be raised via a levy, with contributors drawn from firms regulated by the FSA, consumer credit firms regulated by the Office of Fair Trading, and National Savings and Investment.

A copy of the final report can be viewed here

The FSA will lead a two-year pilot project to test delivery of the UK’s first national money guidance service.