FOFA reforms to change industry skill-set

With FOFA regulatory requirements to be introduced this year, some businesses are hiring FOFA experts to help their practices weather the changes.

"Over the last 12 months there has been a lot of people who have been hired as FOFA experts in planning businesses," FRG director Conor Donoghue said.

"They might not have necessarily had the experience but they have an understanding of how the business actually works, they might have gone through other changes such as the FSRA legislation a number of years ago and they understand how the advice process unfolds."

Despite the FOFA reforms being introduced on July 1, the company said recruitment within the industry will continue to perform as it has over the past year.

"By now most businesses are over FOFA - they're FOFA ready," Mr Donoghue said.
"I don't think FOFA is going to hold up a lot of business on hiring; I think the positions are just changing, skills sets are evolving to what people need and it is just going to cause some changes."
FRG has said that when the reforms were first announced, uncertainty surrounding some of the details caused some businesses to hold off hiring.

Concerns about opt-in clauses and payment structures have lifted as details of the reforms become clearer.

"Some businesses would have held off on hiring because they weren't sure how disruptive FOFA was going to be. But now businesses have got, within reason, a clear understanding of what it is going to look like," Mr Donoghue said.

"But now, a lot of businesses would already be running on those models."