At the chance of sounding facetious, an unbiased financial adviser is somebody who gives independent advice on financial matters. In fact, stating the rather obvious in this way put an important pressure on the three vital components of the independent financial adviser's role.
Independent
The independence of the adviser is critical. When an unbiased financial adviser is consulted, it is very important know that he or she does not have any vested interest and will not be influenced in any way by selling an individual company's products. Independence means that the client can get the adviser to act completely impartially, entirely in the client's needs, and not because there is a recognised dependent relationship between your adviser and one particular supplier. The significance of this independence can't be stressed enough. The adviser needs to be licensed by and is regulated by the Financial Services Authority, and independence is a thing that is central to such recognition. More helpful hints and trust in the adviser stems largely from the latter's independence.
Financial
An unbiased financial adviser needs to have expert professional knowledge of a huge range of financial loans and services. Since it has probably the most highly developed financial services industries in the world, the sheer range of products available on the British market means that knowledge and professionalism must be of the highest order.
Due to the sheer selection of subjects with which an unbiased financial adviser has to be familiar, there exists a correspondingly wide range of qualifications open to individual advisers. For example, the adviser might have professional qualifications awarded by the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Institute, the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP), the Personal Finance Society (PFS), the Pensions Management Institute (PMI, the Securities and Investment Institute (SII), or others. Above all, however, the adviser knows that his is really a constantly changing market, with services and services emerging all the time. He or she will make it her or his business to stay completely up to date with these trends.
Adviser
As an adviser, the 3rd and vital element of the independent financial adviser's role harks back to the first of his or her qualities, independence. The financial advice given must be "best advice" when recommending any service or product. That is to say, the advice should be the advice that is genuinely in the client's best interest. It is as if the adviser had stepped into the client's shoes and was giving advice entirely from the client's perspective. In this manner, the client could be assured that the advice is actually independent, objective and impartial advice which will fulfill the interests that your client himself or herself has identified.
Summary
It is surprising the amount of meaning could be packed in to the three words that describe the role of the independent financial adviser. But because the above brief, thumb-nail sketchy shows, each of the three words encapsulates a fundamental and vital part of this professional's job. Each word describes the obligations that the adviser has towards each of his clients, in order that the clients, because of their part, can rest absolutely assured that they receive genuinely independent, well-informed and expert financial advice that will aid their own best interests.