Stuart Bushell explains SIFA Legal (90 second video)




About SIFA

SIFA was established in 1992 to encourage and support interaction between solicitors and financial advisers, in the belief that there is a natural synergy between their respective areas of expertise from which both stand to benefit.

SIFA provides marketing, training, compliance and consultancy services to solicitors and those financial advisers who satisfy its Lexcel-approved due diligence criteria for the selection of IFAs by solicitors, namely:

  • Independent from the influence of product providers (tied and multi-tied firms are excluded)
  • Direct authorisation by the FSA (IFA network members are excluded)
  • Being fee-based and accounting to clients for commission in terms of the Code of Conduct)
  • Being qualified at least to the standard which will be required by the FSA as from 2013
  • Having a clean regulatory record

The Legal Services Act of 2007 presents major challenges to solicitors, and SIFA believes passionately that, by working with fee-based financial advisers, solicitors can regain the coveted role of trusted advisers, maintaining on-going relationships with their clients and reducing their dependence on transactional work. Its manuals, business handbooks, marketing material and events concentrate on the common ground between the two disciplines.

SIFA’s office is in Epsom, in Surrey, but three of its four directors are based regionally. Ian Muirhead is based at Epsom but Ian Cockerill, the compliance director, is based in Leicester; David Seager, the Development Director, is based in Hampshire; and Stuart Bushell, the Legal Affairs Director, in Worcestershire. Prior to joining SIFA, Ian Cockerill was head of financial services compliance at the Law Society and Stuart Bushell was the Law Society Director charged with Legal Services Act transition.

SIFA was a founder member of the Law Society’s Financial and Investment Business Working Party and is recognised by the FSA as the representative body for solicitor financial advisers. The SIFA Directory of Professional Financial Advisers is endorsed by the Law Society.