Sants, who recently apologised for saying a loss of 20% of advisers as a result of the RDR was “acceptable”, and Hoban have pledged to spend 5 May with Money Honey, based in Brighton.
Last year, Hoban caused a stir for saying advisers’ current entry-level exam requirements were no tougher than those taken by McDonald’s shift managers.
Welcoming Hoban and Sants to Money Honey will be managing director Ian Seal, who oversees a team of three advisers and one paraplanner.
“It’s brilliant,” Seal said. “We’re short-staffed at the moment. One adviser quit in January over the RDR’s qualification rules and another left last week in protest at the FSCS levy for Keydata.
“Let’s hope they can bring in some new clients in the short time they’re here, to make up for it.”
Seal said Sants will visit a handful of the company’s existing clients and probably sit in on a meeting about Money Honey’s terms of business contracts.
He said Hoban would probably make the tea and do some filing.
In a statement, the FSA said: “This is a perfect opportunity for Hector and the FSA to find out more about the companies we regulate.”
Sants said: “Last year I said regulated entities should be afraid of the FSA. That was a bit of an error. It’s not that firms should not fear us, because they should. We can be scary. It scares me how scary we can be. I’m scared right now.”
Hoban said: “Hector, you’re scaring me.”
Nick Cann, chief executive of the Institute of Financial Planning, said nothing.
Sants said next month’s visit to Money Honey will be the first in a series of ‘A day in the life of…’ events in which FSA directors spend a day with a company in the areas they regulate.
