Regulation prepares advisers for ‘new normal’

DLA Phillips Fox partner Tracey Cross said the Financial Advisers Act was a "new world" for financial advisers that had come at a cost.

But she said it had taught them important lessons about how to deal with regulation and interact with regulators.

"The Financial Advisers Act has put them in a new world; it gets them in a different mind-set.  They might not like having to deal with it but they know it's not going away and knowing the approach of the regulator is always a benefit."

Cross said if advisers hadn't gone through all those changes they might be "star struck" by new regimes, such as the Anti-Money Laundering legislation that kicks in later this year.