With just 20 months until new minimum qualification requirements come into force under the UK regulator’s Retail Distribution Review, a new survey has revealed a mixed picture as to how far along firms are in their preparations, with a quarter saying they still need further information and guidance on the new Level 4 qualification’s framework.

Having surveyed professionals with RDR programme responsibility at IFAs across the UK, Focus Solutions found that 21 per cent of respondents have only a “basic understanding” of the new qualification’s framework; a further 4 per cent said they knew “nothing at all.”

More encouragingly however, nearly half of those surveyed by Focus feel they have a broad understanding of the subject, and a further 15 per cent claimed to be experts.

Under the RDR, after end-2012 advisors will have to be qualified at QCA Level 4 – the equivalent of undergraduate level – as part of a programme of reforms by the Financial Services Authority to drive up standards of investment advice. The new mandatory qualification has been met with a variety of concerns, not least the extra training costs to be incurred by firms still recovering from the effects of the financial crisis.

In addition to identifying a need for clarification on the new qualification’s framework, Focus’ survey also showed a considerable level of variance in the progress firms were making in their advisor training programmes. While half of those firms polled said their training programmes are underway, the remainder have yet to put their plans into action and of these 11 per cent have yet to clarify their requirements.

While such figures might seem to indicate a lack of momentum in addressing the new requirements, Alison Young, training and consultancy director at Focus, pointed out that several factors could be behind hold-ups in firms’ decision-making processes.

First among these is that firms are waiting for the major examination boards to issue their frameworks on the new qualification and these are expected by Q3 this year, she said. Second to this hold-up in the decision-making process, IFAs are also looking at other elements of the RDR which will affect their business models and evaluating how this will interplay with the new qualification requirements.

Training costs are obviously a crucial consideration, and Focus’s poll uncovered a significant level of uncertainty as to how much firms will have to set aside for advisor training. While the majority (29 per cent) of those surveyed estimate that the cost for transitioning their business to Level 4 will be between £1,000 to £1,999 per advisor, some 11 per cent foresee training costs in excess of £3,000 per individual. Just under a quarter (22 per cent), meanwhile, said that they don’t know what the cost to their business will be.

Training methods will clearly play an important role in what the training costs related to the RDR will be. While Focus found firms to be open to a range of training methods, including webinars and online reference material, 25 of the 28 firms surveyed said that face-to-face courses will be playing a major role in their training programmes. Far fewer firms said they would be making use of online tools – an interesting finding considering the cost savings to be made by training staff through the web.

This, Ms Young said, could be attributed to the fact that in times of flux firms are likely to fall back on methodologies that they are familiar with. It might also be the case, she continued, that advisors may well make use of online tuition and materials through their examining body, but that this might not be visible to the IFA firms themselves.