This has raised fears that they are being left behind other industry parties and could be vulnerable to another FSA investigation into the sales process.
As Mortgage Solutions’ sister title, COVER, revealed in August, the project was created with the aim of pre-empting censure by the regulator following its damning review of oral CI sales (including face-to-face) under ICOBS rules.
The finalised guidelines (which were originally proposed as scripts, but later redefined less rigidly) were authorised for distribution towards the end of 2010.
The ABI believed it was down to the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) to relay them to advisers.
However, despite having several months to initiate this, many advisers and major networks have not seen or heard anything about the final version.
In what appears to have been a miscommunication between the bodies, AIFA said it was not aware of this responsibility after its involvement in the production of the guidelines ended.
It has clarified though that any advisers wishing to obtain a copy of the guidelines should contact AIFA directly.
Some of the UK’s largest adviser networks were among those to be left in the dark.
A spokesman for Sesame Bankhall said: “We would be interested in seeing them and we may use them if they would be beneficial.”
This was echoed by Dean Mason, financial planner at Masons Financial Planning, who feared advisers were being excluded.
“It has to be an inclusive process,” he said.
“Everyone’s dealing with the public regardless of what regulations they are working under and should be given the same opportunity, because that’s only treating the customer fairly. We should all be singing from the same hymn sheet,” he added.
Andrew Ward, partner of Your Sure, agreed that the lack of communication was worrying.
“It is absolutely concerning because we don’t know where we are. I’d like the chance to see what these guidelines are as we may find we’re not that far off with what we do now, but we don’t know.”
