Symponia have stated that advisers are avoiding compulsory long-term care exams by taking advantage of loopholes in the Financial Services Authority's grandfathering rules.
The company is putting pressure on the regulator to change its long-term care qualification rules as the gaps in eligibility criteria mean that clients may not be getting advice from qualified advisers.
The rules on grandfathering say that advisers who are deemed 'Long-term Care Specialists' before 25th October 2004, must sit the exam within two years of that date. But if an adviser stops writing long-term care business for 60 consecutive days, the two-year limit stops.
Symponia believe that this could mean that an unqualified long-term care adviser could continue indefinitely.
Our view
All the advisers at have already passed the required Long Term Care Examination.
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