The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is still concerned about transparency in the advice space, especially in relation to charging and independence, chief executive Martin Wheatley has said.
He said the regulator had received consumer reports on the two issues that were 'a concern'.
Wheatley added although the FCA considered transparency to be in "net positive territory" as a result of the Retail Distribution Review, the watchdog would need to do more work on the issue.
Wheatley said: "We've achieved quite a lot so there is now a visible and explicit payment upfront rather than something that's hidden in the cost of your investment.
"I'm not sure [adviser charging] is quite as transparent as we would have wanted it to be.
"Some consumer reports we get are still a concern, both in terms of fees and certainly in terms of the capacity in which the adviser is operating and this difficult issue of when independent is independent and what does restricted mean.
"That's something that's come back to us as an area that we probably need to spend more time on."
The FCA is currently reviewing firms' implementations of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) in three stages of increasing expectation levels.
It completed its first phase in July and is expecting the second "statistically significant" stage to conclude early this year.
The regulator said it was pleased with the progress in had found during the first stage but had concerns about some issues including the use of cash terms when communicating fees to clients.
Wheatley said on Monday the regulator may need to use its supervisory powers if firms are found to be failing with RDR compliance in the later stages of the review.
However, he said the FCA would shy away from introducing changes to the rules unless it thinks "they are really necessary to make the system work".
