The upcoming Retail Distribution Review (RDR) will result in higher charges for customers, according to a survey of independent financial advisers (IFAs).

In a poll of 283 IFAs by accountancy firm BDO, 90 per cent of respondents said they expected IFA remuneration to stay at the same level or higher after RDR.

The survey revealed that RDR would not necessarily make charges more transparent and that IFAs will still find ways to charge clients.

While RDR will signal the end of commission payments, 70 per cent of survey respondents indicated that a commission might remain in another form, with the client paying the provider directly and the provider then paying the adviser.

Alex Ellerton, financial services director at BDO, commented, ‘There is consensus amongst IFAs that the most prominent form of remuneration in a post-RDR world will simply be charges deducted from the customers’ premium by the product provider and passed back to the IFA – just the same way as commission works now.

‘Unless customers take a much greater interest in information shown to them than they do at present, it appears highly debatable that – for all the cost to the industry – RDR will make adviser remuneration any more transparent.’

Currently, the average initial adviser charge on a client investment of £50,000 is 2.8 per cent, with trail charge of 0.6 per cent per annum.

It is expected that RDR will change those figures to 2.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively, which means that, despite the slight drop in initial charge, investors will end up paying more over the longer term through trail charge.

Tim Kirk, partner and head of financial services at BDO, said, ‘Many industry experts have voiced fears of an “advice gap” growing, where pricing would prohibit all but the most affluent consumers from seeking financial advice.

‘The adviser charging levels anticipated by IFAs would seem to lend weight to these concerns. The fees advisers want to charge for advice seem significantly higher than what we believe consumers are willing to pay.’