The organisation pushing for closer relations between solicitors and independent financial advisers (IFAs) this week welcomed the Financial Services Authority’s decision to clamp down on commissions paid to IFAs.

The FSA will ban IFAs from taking commissions from finance companies for recommending the company’s investment products. IFAs will instead have to charge consumers directly for their services.

Ian Muirhead, managing director at Solicitors for Independent Financial Advice (SIFA), which connects independent financial advisers with solicitors and other professionals via its directory, said: ‘The banning of commission is something for which we have lobbied for the past five years. It enables us to define an elite group of fee-based financial planners who are ideally placed to work with solicitors and help them to diversify their practices in anticipation of the Legal Services Act.’

SIFA is encouraging solicitors to form closer ties with IFAs once alternative business structures are available in October 2011.At present, IFAs can take commissions from financial services firms when they sell one of the firm’s financial products. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned solicitors working with IFAs that any IFA commissions must not interfere with clients’ best interests.