Registered individuals on the other hand work for directly authorised partner companies, either as an employed or self-employed adviser.
Typically the wider partnership will set compliance standards that the advice businesses must meet, but it is not responsible for regulatory compliance in the way networks are.
Self-employed registered individuals within national partnership businesses can access the services and support provided by the parent company, including marketing support, paraplanning, compliance and administration.
But while the advisers are representing one business and one brand, they still have the autonomy to make their own plans, decisions and to determine their own direction of travel in growing their business.
Working in a national partnership
There are some advantages a national partnership model offers to advice businesses; financially, structurally, culturally, and when it comes to recruitment.
The model allows advice businesses to select the compliance services it wants to obtain from the parent company, albeit at an extra cost.
When it comes to fees the advisers are bound to adhere to the level of the core offering, meaning they cannot charge fees above that.
However, they have the autonomy to discount if they feel it is appropriate, although this is an exception rather than the norm.
National advisory businesses typically offer a common charging structure throughout the business. Businesses within network models on the other hand are typically free to create and operate their own fee model as long as it sits within the parameters of network's pre-set limits.
When it comes to centralised investment propositions, they can be handled differently in partnerships and networks.
In our model, our CIP was created through full collaboration with our advisers over several months. It was also based on a full target market assessment of the entire Continuum client base, which was additionally challenged through a third-party independent research team.
This process ensures we are able to provide a consistent offering through the business for all our advisers.
I would suggest that all CIPs are unique to each individual national business for the reason that all nationals will produce a different target market assessment.
In networks, which effectively offer a support service, generally speaking they will provide a prescriptive model for their restricted advisers, but are likely to offer a framework for their IFA community.
Each IFA business within a network will typically be responsible for assessing and determining client needs and wants specific to their own client base and effectively creating their own CIP within the framework offered. The network will then have the responsibility to sign off and provide continuous oversight for each individual CIP.
