Two months after they were told their jobs were at risk, roughly 250 financial advisers at Prudential Financial Planning (PFP) received redundancy notices last week, with some opting for voluntary redundancy.
Many took to social media to reveal the news, which came weeks before Christmas and as the country remains in lockdown.
PFP revealed it was going to introduce a self-employed structure in September 2020, saying that it planned “from 2021 onwards, to deliver face-to-face advice to individual retail customers solely through its self-employed advice business, The Advice Partnership (TAP)”.
M&G also unveiled its £28bn wealth management arm at the end of September; which comprises PFP, TAP, the Ascentric platform and the M&G Direct funds business.
Opportunity to apply
A spokesperson for PFP told International Adviser the shift stems from a change from its fixed costs model to a variable costs one, to significantly upscale TAP.
The spokesperson added that all PFP advisers were given the opportunity to apply for roles within TAP.
But early reports suggested that a total of 250 of Prudential’s restricted advisers were at risk of losing their jobs, while only 150 places were available within the self-employed business.
PFP’s spokesperson was unable to confirm the figures for HR reasons.