Definition
A professional person qualified to give advice to clients regarding investments such as life insurance, pensions, mutual funds/unit trusts and taxation etc.
A financial adviser may charge a fee and/or receive a commission on a product recommended. In the UK a financial adviser is either independent - an independent financial adviser (IFA) - or a company representative (tied agent).
An IFA is free to recommend products from a number of companies and his selection will be based on which company and product best suits the needs of the client. A company representative is authorised to recommend only the products of the company he represents, so his advice is inevitably and quite properly limited.