Independent financial advisers (IFAs) may have to consider alternatives to the traditional insurance market, a professional indemnity (PI) expert has warned.
Former lead underwriter at RE Brown & Others Reg Brown will be on the discussion panel at the Society of Financial Advisers' (Sofa) forum on 16 October.
The forum will discuss how IFAs can comply with FSA regulations on PI cover, as they face the hardest market in years.
Brown, a former CII president and PI specialist, said the forum may find that an "alternative to the old insurance model was needed".
"The old model has failed our clients so badly," he said.
"That's what the solicitors thought some years ago and that's why they set up the Solicitors' Indemnity Fund.
"Of course, that's now closed but it may be something IFAs need to consider."
The discussion panel will comprise Nicola Kohn, director of Lloyd's brokers CJ Coleman & Co, Professional Risks Insurance chief underwriting director Peter Matson and Fay Goddard, policy director of the Association of Independent Financial Advisers.
Brown said the FSA had not yet confirmed whether it would send a representative.
Sofa managing director Brian Lawless said an increasingly litigious society had made IFAs more and more vulnerable to claims for bad advice.
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