These are the terms being banded around following the Sandler review of medium and long term savings.
According to Mr Sandler, only intermediaries remunerated by fees should be called advisers. Anyone that received commission from product providers, as payment should be termed a 'financial product distributor'.
The proposals made are not totally in line with the ones made previously by the industry regulator, the Financial Services Authority, in their review of adviser status and the review into how advisers are paid.
When reaching the final conclusions of how the financial services industry is to operate, the differing opinions will no doubt be debated and a compromise reached.