Advisers can play their part in guiding vulnerable citizens.

Financial Adviser, March, 2005

I WAS delighted to see an article in Financial Adviser on the Mental Capacity Bill (3 February) and the effect it could have on the work of independent financial advisers.

I was particularly pleased to see that the article listed the five key principles of the bill.

These principles are empowering. They make it plain that nobody should be labelled mentally incapable just because they have a learning disability, dementia, brain injury or any other mental difficulty.

We must start from an assumption that people are capable and allow them, or help them, to make as many of their own decisions as possible.

If someone does need to make a decision for someone else, he must act in that person's best interests.

The article quite...

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