A financial adviser related to me an incident he had with a client. It goes like this: A elderly lady approached him to advise her on what to do with her massive unit trust lost. The adviser found that the lady’s adviser had recommended very high risks unit trusts that are not suitable for her age. Moreover, there was no recommendation made on other more crucial matters like health insurance. Due to the market condition, the unit trusts lost were more than 50% down. The adviser advised her to cut lost and put in a more suitable vehicle such as a single premium endowment. After 3 weeks, the adviser follow-up and called her about her decision. To the adviser’s shock, the client had sold off her unit trusts and bought the single premium endowment from another agent. Apparently the client took the adviser’s recommendation and transacted it with another person. While the adviser was not angry with her, when I heard this I was personally furious. If I were the adviser, I would have sent an invoice charging her for the commission-in-lieu. The client has done the wrong thing as it was not a fee-based planning. Thus, transacting the recommended product from someone else is equivalent to denying the original adviser’s remuneration.