5 Changes We Made To The 2021 Top Rated Guide
We’re delighted that so many advisers have qualified for VouchedFor’s 2021 Top Rated Financial Adviser Guide, which was distributed in The Times on Saturday, 10th April 2021.
The Guide helps people understand advice and the value it can deliver. This is designed to help all good advisers, not to mention consumers who have been put off advice because they've only heard the horror stories.
In response to some suggestions we received following last year’s Guide, we’ve made some improvements to 2021’s Guide. These are designed to ensure that the Guide is as clear as possible, and generates maximum value for consumers and advisers.
5 of the main changes are set out below:
1. The title of the Guide has changed from ‘VouchedFor’s Guide To The UK’s Top Rated Financial Advisers,’ which could be misleading, to ‘VouchedFor’s Top Rated Financial Adviser Guide.’ It is clear throughout the Guide that advisers must be VouchedFor members to qualify.
2. To avoid advisers implying the Guide was compiled by The Times or suchlike, we have created clear guidelines for qualifying advisers at the top of
this blog.
3. There is a ‘How to use the Guide’ section in the Guide which helps consumers understand the relative worth of advisers' reviews. For instance, it makes clear that 20 excellent reviews from 40 total clients is less
impressive than 20 excellent reviews from 20 total clients.
impressive than 20 excellent reviews from 20 total clients.
4. We’ve been encouraging advisers to invite regular reviews from prospects and clients and have made it easy to do this. For instance, our automated annual follow-up review tool enables clients to reconfirm or
change the content of their original review every 12 months. Clients are invariably happy to do this and it gives others a running commentary on the great work advisers are doing.
change the content of their original review every 12 months. Clients are invariably happy to do this and it gives others a running commentary on the great work advisers are doing.
5. We’re working closely with advisers to help them use their Top Rated status in the most responsible and impactful ways. This includes running
this webinar on 15th April.
If you are an adviser who is not featured in the Guide, it's worth noting that we would never assert that you are not a good adviser. The truth is we simply do not know.
What we do know is that every adviser who has qualified as Top Rated is championing transparency by inviting independently-verified client reviews, is receiving excellent feedback and is subject to our third party checks and monitoring.
Our extensive checks include checking reviews are from genuine clients (most review platforms simply require reviewers to have a valid email address).
Our checks and monitoring absorb much time and cost, which is why only fully verified, paying VouchedFor members can attain Top Rated status. Though we are keen that cost is not a significant barrier and our subscription cost is an all-in £45+VAT per month (£15+VAT for advisers just starting out).
Our checks and monitoring absorb much time and cost, which is why only fully verified, paying VouchedFor members can attain Top Rated status. Though we are keen that cost is not a significant barrier and our subscription cost is an all-in £45+VAT per month (£15+VAT for advisers just starting out).
If you have any questions or feedback on the 2021 Guide or anything else we'd love to hear from you! Please email customer_service@vouchedfor.co.uk.
