The negative advisory effects on portfolio performance are even stronger for BFAs (banks) than for IFAs (independents).

FORBES: Why Advisors Don't Add Value

In theory independent financial advisers (IFAs) pick the best product for their customer from the thousands available.

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The majority of tied agents and even IFAs work on a commission basis, whereby the product provider remunerates the adviser when you take out one of their products.

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IFAs accuse ministers of capitulating to the banks, whose support they will need in order to persuade thousands of small businesses to take up stakeholder pensions, due to go on sale next April.

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In the case of IFAs, there is evidence of reduced portfolio variance, systematic and unsystematic, as a result of such involvement, but no traces of such an effect remain in the bank advisor sample.

FORBES: Why Advisors Don't Add Value

Higher trading costs and the associated commissions earned by IFAs certainly contribute to these outcomes, since the researchers find that advised accounts feature higher portfolio turnover (though not necessarily more frequent trading) relative to self-managed accounts.

FORBES: Why Advisors Don't Add Value

In Pakistan, for example, the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), created under the auspices of UNESCO, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed the Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS), a risk-prevention system using data obtained via satellite.

UNESCO: Published in Mainichi Newspaper on 21 May 2012.

IFAs in France and Germany.

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