Some 75% of the UK population has received their first dose of the covid vaccine and nearly 50% has had them both done, according to government figures at the time of publication.
As we start to go back to seemingly normal social lives, what will that look like for the financial advice industry? What safety measures will be kept in place and which one will remain a distant memory?
But most importantly, what role will vaccines play in the grand scheme of it all?
In Hong Kong, for instance, the Insurance Authority has sent out a circular “strongly encouraging” firms to arrange for their staff and intermediaries to get inoculated, especially for those who have regular contact with clients.
Now, vaccines in the UK are not mandatory – not even during a pandemic, according to parliament – but there could be arguments that financial advisers may be required to have had both of their jabs before going back to their face-to-face meetings with clients.
International Adviser spoke to industry bodies, advisers, and advice firms to understand what will be required for advisers to go ‘back to normal’.
Safety measures
There was no consensus from the respondents as to what the best way forward will be because, while getting vaccinated is, indeed, a personal choice – and currently the government has not made it mandatory to do so – at the same time there is an argument for the sector’s ‘duty of care’ when it comes to clients.
Both Quilter and the Personal Finance Society (PFS) told IA they have seen instances of either customers asking whether their adviser was vaccinated, or informing them that they received both covid jabs and that they would be willing to have a physical meeting with their planner.
Others asked to get covid tests – for both advisers and clients – prior to meeting with them.
Keith Richards, chief executive of the PFS, said: “We all have a responsibility to ensure that the health and safety of both clients and staff is put first, and the risk of transmission remains too great to take any chances.
“Equally we shouldn’t put clients in a position where they need to ask what precautions are in place, and even if some clients are more relaxed, we have a professional responsibility to always act in the clients’ best interests and, as a result, many advisers continue to use video conferencing to conduct client meetings where possible.”
Amanda Cassidy, managing director of Quilter Financial Advisers, added: “As we have moved out of lockdown, and more people have had two doses of the vaccine, we have seen a steep increase in demand for face-to-face meetings and we’ve been gradually changing our processes to allow more meetings in person, in line with the government roll-out.
“Our first priority is the wellbeing of our clients and advisers and therefore, as part of this, we do urge our advisers to get the vaccine when they are able to do so.”
Expectations
Marc Bishop, HR director at IWP, said: “At IWP, we take the interaction between our advisers and clients seriously.
“We will ensure that when a face-to-face meeting takes place in the future that it will be in a covid safe environment and that all parties understand their responsibilities to maintain social distancing.
“The average age of an IWP adviser is over 48 years old and consequently we would expect most of our advisers to be partly or completely vaccinated within the next few weeks.”
A matter of choice
But Ben Wright, director of strategic development at Tenet, believes that getting inoculated should be a personal choice, and that nobody should be forced into it.
“The vast majority of our staff are presently working from home and have been since March 2020, and we have no plans to change this until government guidelines states it’s safe to return to offices,” he said.
“The vaccine looks like it will be a game changer in helping people back to work and getting the economy back on track and therefore we hope that the majority of people will opt to receive it.
“With that said, it is an individual’s choice on whether they want to receive the vaccine or not and we won’t insist that any of our staff or advisers are vaccinated. If government guidance changes, we will obviously review our position, as we have throughout the pandemic.”
‘Duty of care’
At the same time, Phil Billingham, director of Perceptive Planning, believes that forcing financial advisers to be vaccinated wouldn’t be completely unheard of as it has already happened for other professions in the past, or for people visiting certain countries.
He added: “For what it’s worth, as most financial planners will be dealing with vulnerable clients at some point, we have a duty of care to protect them as much as we can. And clients do want face-to-face contact again – they tell us that.
“We also have a duty of care to our staff, especially those who are, or may be living closely with someone who is vulnerable themselves.
“So yes, just as surgeons require a hepatitis B vaccine to practice, and many countries require a yellow fever vaccination to enter, I think we should require that all the team participate fully in the vaccination programme.
“They are free not to do so, but then they can no longer carry out their role, and that is their choice. But we have a duty of care to staff and clients, and that – it seems to me – cannot be adequately discharged if we allow unvaccinated staff to remain in close contact with potentially vulnerable clients and staff.”
