engage a financial adviser who helps them make this choice bringing together expertise in financial products and planning asset allocation and portfolio construction we continue to pander to the whims of the distributorseller who struggles with acquiring expertise and cannot give up the basic need to sell more and earn more since we are obsessed with misselling we define the role fee compliance and qualification for advisers with rigidity forgetting that the adviser will make no money as long as the sellerdistributor is still around strip distribution of glamour do not expect the distributor to know anything more than the name of the product and the sales literature ensure that such literature is simple useful standardised and supported by advertisement and promotion dejargonise finance and let everyone know that they can buy anything anywhere from a distributor when distribution becomes a simple volume game effort reduces and commissions fall ensure that distributors cannot offer advice pull off that veneer of expertise that missellers wear carve the advisers role advocate for it ensure accountability to the investor imposing high qualification compliance and regulatory cost is fine as long as there is remuneration an adviser should earn more than the distributor and unless the investor agrees that his decisions are his own every financial product should need the recommendation of an adviser as being suitable to the investor with adequate disclosures to the investor this adviser can earn fee alone fee plus a commission or a combination of the two it will not matter who is paying since accountability is more important that the amount if we ensure that it is honourable and remunerative to sell right we will have an army of good guys outnumbering the bad ones that sell dubiously the author is md centre for investment education and learning