The Financial Services Authority (FSA) remains confident there will be a viable simplified advice market post-retail distribution review (RDR) implementation and has said it is already seeing well developed plans.
With many commentators predicting the advice gap will grow from next year, both the FSA and Financial Services Consumer Panel have pointed to simplified advice as a way of catering to the mid-to-mass market.
However, experts within the industry have voiced concerns that the same regulatory thresholds are being applied to simplified advice, making it too risky.
Nevertheless, Martin Wheatley, managing director of the FSA, has insisted there are already "very developed plans" from some providers.
Speaking at the regulator's annual public meeting on Tuesday, he said: "My expectation is that we will go through a period of readjustment where the firms who create successful models - and I believe there will be some - become the models that others copy.
"The financial services industry tends to innovate quickly and I expect that to happen very quickly once the changes come into effect."
"We're spending a lot of time talking to firms and putting in place our own oversight programme to look at the changes being made, and at this stage we're reasonably confident the changes will be made in necessary time to fill the gap."
Earlier this year, after the FSA issued its finalised guidance on simplified advice, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) predicted it was "unlikely to work in practice".
At the time, Maggie Craig, the trade body's director of financial conduct regulation, said: "Customers should be able to access and afford financial advice that is appropriate for the products they purchase, and without a workable model for a more simplified advice process, we could see the advice gap further exacerbated."
