US Financial Planning guru Bill Bachrach believes advisers should be embarrassed to say they are Level 4 qualified and must aim for higher qualifications.
Mr Bachrach, who specialises in values-based Financial Planning, said it was "not a good sign" so many had lacked basic qualifications.
He said: "You have to like the idea that the Government is trying to make the industry more professional but the Government standard will always be the lowest standard.
"It would be embarrassing for a person in any industry to say 'I meet the minimum government standard' so I think as far as RDR goes it shows most advisers must not operate at a very high standard if people in the industry were saying 'Oh my goodness, now I have to meet this higher standard'.
"You circle back from this and you wonder why consumers don't trust our profession. It's unfortunately because many people in it are not acting professionally."
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He said for the most successful Financial Planners, RDR should have been irrelevant.
"The industry should already on its own be operating at such a high standard that they're looking down at a lower level that's being imposed so therefore it should be irrelevant," he said.
Regarding the lack of trust for financial advisers, he said advisers needed to "walk the talk" for their clients and do the same as they advised their clients.
He said: "Something happens at an unconscious level when a planner themselves doesn't have a plan and when a planner who tells people they ought to pay for a plan doesn't have a plan, then they don't have an objective person giving advice.
"Trust begins at home and if you are espousing a message that you don't actually live yourself then I think people pick up on that."
Mr Bachrach will be a keynote speaker at the Institute of Financial Planning conference in October.

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