The Institute of Money Adviser's Certificate of Money Advice Practice (CertMAP) is a qualification for people who are already working or volunteering as money advisers. You need to have a year's full-time experience or two years part-time. The course is provided by the IMA jointly with Staffordshire University. About 1,300 people have attained the CertMAP qualification, which is accredited by the … [Read more...]
Articles for debt advisers
Why the FCA should ban the Compass debt advice model
In March 2016, the clients of Compass Debt Counsellors found out their debt management firm had gone into administration. Many people had thousands of pounds being held by Compass and may not get this money back. In This Compass points to Debt Misery, Legal Beagles points out: "This form of daylight robbery is hugely rewarding because no one ever seems to go to prison for such crime. If I … [Read more...]
FCA and commercial debt management – the saga continues
This is a guest post by Nick Pearson, CEO of The Debt Counsellors Charitable Trust, who is writing in a personal capacity. The overwhelming majority of commercial Debt Management (DM) firms were required to submit their applications for full Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation by the end of December 2014. To date, as far as I'm aware, no firm has yet received full … [Read more...]
IVAs – do you have to get a secured loan?
A reader asked this in a comment, but it needs a whole article to tell the story properly: "We are currently 4.5 years into an IVA, we have got to raise £15,000 through remortgage. We have been told from the start to not worry as there is little to no chance of us being offered it, however we have been offered a £15,000 loan over 15 years and paying back £45,000. I can’t believe this is an … [Read more...]
Pension changes – the challenge for debt advice
This is a guest post by Nick Lord. It argues that the new pension rules are a game-changer for debt advisers and that debt advice agencies need to put measures in place to ensure that their advisers can provide best advice post April 2015. Nick is a consultant on money advice and personal finance issues working with Government departments, regulators and firms. Debt Advice and the Proposed … [Read more...]