Barclays plans to convert all their financial advisers in just 4 weeks, who currently can only offer Legal & General policies, to offer advice and research on the whole marketplace, such as oursleves, have been shelved.
Rumours prevail in the industry that about 80% of their advisers failed their first month's training course, although Barclays deny this and say that they have posponed any conversion to tie in with the changes in the industry that were proposed for October, but may not now happen until mid 2004.
Our View
No shocks there then. We said in previous articles that you cannot convert a sales team used to advising on one company's products to a full range with a few courses.
Being Independent, and in our case, with all advisers being required to be qualified to the same level as a Chartered Accountant or Solicitor, takes years!