I chose the Restricted Activity Investment Product Intermediary (RAIPI) status as the way forward for my firm under the new regulatory regime. In many ways, it's simply a natural progression.

As a RAIPI, I'm allowed to give advice only on the products of companies with whom my firm holds an agency, namely Caledonian Life, Canada Life, Eagle Star, Friends First, Hibernian Life & Pensions, Irish Life, New Ireland, Scottish Provident and Standard Life. These are the same nine companies that the vast majority of brokers, myself included, have been doing business with for years.

Between them, these companies produce more than 140 different financial products (life assurance plans, health insurance plans, savings plans, PIPs, lump sum investment bonds, pensions, AVCs etc.) and an even larger number of investment and pension fund choices.

That range is wide enough to enable me to tailor a product or portfolio of products to suit even the most discerning of clients. This is separate to any mortgage advice my firm provides. For the moment, mortgage advice and broking is considered a separate business not regulated by the Central Bank.

There has been talk in certain industry circles that RAIPIs are in some way inferior to Authorised Advisers. I don't agree with this kind of talk. Let's face it - the majority of brokers in this country have been recommending the products of just the aforementioned nine companies to their clients all their working lives. I have no doubt the majority of brokers will continue to recommend the products of the same nine companies as before. But at least when you go to a RAIPI for advice, as a consumer you will know from the outset that you are only going to receive advice about the products of a maximum of nine companies. An Authorised Adviser is not only permitted but also obliged to steer you as best they can in the direction of the most suitable product for your particular needs, irrespective of whether they are agents for the recommended company.

This means that all the newly appointed Authorised Advisers around the country, who have heretofore been recommending only nine companies' products or less, must suddenly discard any preferences for these firms and consider recommending the products of some of their "old adversaries," like Quinn Life, EBS Summit Funds, Ark Life, Lifetime, Royal Liver, Scottish Legal or Acorn Life.

At the very least, they must be suitably well informed about the details of these products to tell you, if asked, why their recommendation does not include any of them. I fear in practice this may not happen.

For my part, I will continue to find the most suitable product for my client's needs from my "restricted" range of literally thousands of possible combinations of funds and products that my nine companies can provide. I won't claim to be offering anything else.

Liam Ferguson is principal of Ferguson & Associates