21 Feb 2018 | Posted In Money advice news

The Institute of Money Advisers (IMA) and Shelter are delighted to be working together to provide up-to-date information and resources to the money advice sector.

Shelter’s Specialist Debt Advice Service (SDAS) offers free professional guidance with complex debt queries. The service can be accessed by debt advisers offering free-to-client advice in England and Wales.

The IMA will support adviser networking and information sharing in England and Wales, through a range of new activities including extending Shelter’s specialist debt advice expertise to the wider sector.

Further development of the IMA website will see the introduction of a resources directory, which will provide a library of Shelter updates – including quarterly legal updates for presentation at regional Money Advice Group meetings, which will be made available to advisers unable to attend regional meetings.

The IMA’s resources directory will also host an archive of Shelter’s monthly ebulletins and spotlight articles. Additionally, Shelter will be publishing technical information guides and briefings on topics of importance to advisers, which will also be hosted within the IMA’s resources directory.

Occasional IMA webinars will be delivered on non-technical topics that help support good casework practice. In response to consultancy service enquiries and FAQs, the IMA will also host Shelter webinar sessions, which will be recorded and made available to advisers unable to join the live webinar.

The IMA’s CEO, Robert Wilson, said ‘we are very excited to be working with Shelter and we look forward to developing these new areas of work, which we hope will help busy advisers to more effectively obtain the information and resources they need.’

Shelter’s SDAS Operations Manager, Ryan Hayes, said: ‘we are in a unique position to gain an insight in to the types of queries which debt advisers are struggling with on a day to day basis. We look forward to working with the IMA to support advisers with access to additional resources.’

The IMA’s Networking and Information Sharing project and Shelter’s Specialist Debt Advice Service are funded by The Money Advice Service (MAS).