Questions asked about DIMS

It is surveying advisers who are licenced to provide DIMS in the wake of the collapse of Ross Asset Management, which highlighted it as an area of risk.

Although more than 1300 advisers ticked the box for DIMS when applying for authorisation, it is not known how many of them are actually operating a DIMS service.

The survey asks DIMS operators a number of questions about their business, including how many staff they have, the size of their funds under management and whether they use a platform.

institute of Financial Advisers president Nigel Tate said it was a useful exercise that would identify “red flags” that the FMA could follow up on, such as having a very small number of staff managing a large amount of money, as was the case with RAM.