There was a time, not that long ago, when financial advisers as we know them today didn’t really exist. Pension and tax advice came from accountants. If you bought shares you bought them via a stockbroker (who gave you advice along the way). Unit trusts came directly — you responded to advertisements or perhaps got your accountant to do it for you. Occasionally you used an insurance broker. And that was that. It wasn’t particularly complicated and as a result no one (your accountant aside) was officially qualified to do anything. Brokers and dealers didn’t take exams to prove their proficiency and no one really thought they should. In the June 1963 edition of the Stock Exchange Journal, a Mr H.H. West in a marvellous piece on the idea of compulsory qualifications stated that ‘if it could be proven beyond all reasonable doubt that the introduction of examinations would be in the interests of everybody concerned and the practical and administrative difficulties could be overcome’ then no obstacles should be put in its way.
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