Following the release of the Money Advice Service's (MAS) year-end results this morning, the body's chief executive has said it will actively look to foster partnerships with advisers over the coming 12 months.
Chief executive, Caroline Rookes, explained that although there was little crossover in the remit of advisers and MAS - with MAS offering generic unregulated advice as opposed to regulated advice from advisers - there were areas where the service would benefit from a strengthened relationship with the advisory community.
She said: "We are keen to set up a network with intermediaries and I met with Chris Hannant, the policy director of APFA, just three weeks ago to discuss how we can work together in future.
"Advisers' expertise will help us develop our offering, and of course we will continue to refer customers to them where they are in need of regulated advice."
She explained that tighter coordination with other parts of the financial services sector was a natural evolution and part of a wider collaborative push that has seen the organisation already partner with banks.
MAS recently helped to develop a financial education initiative with the Royal Bank of Scotland and partnered with Barclays on ISA information.
MAS has seen the number of its customers increase 62% year on year but Rookes did not think that was the result of orphaned clients moving across to the service because its core target market was different from that of advisers and the banks.
Rather, she explained the increase in terms of greater awareness of the service, a succesful advisertising campaign as well as better partnerships. She also said that ongoing financial difficulties meant more people were seeking unregulated, generic financial advice.
