The Association of Independent Financial Advisers, the UK trade lobby group for the country’s financial advisor sector, said its deputy director general, Fay Goddard, is leaving the organisation in July Ms Goddard has spent 10 years at the AIFA. It has been a busy period for the UK’s independent financial advisor sector, which has had to contend with new regulations and a current major review of the retail financial services industry by the Financial Services Authority, the UK regulator. During her time in the post, IFAs have had to get to grips with new rules on their fees, growing investor demand for sophisticated, "alternative" investments like hedge funds and ever-changing tax rules affecting areas such as inheritance tax and trusts. "Fay has been a great servant to AIFA and the IFA profession for more than a decade. She's seen more than her fair share of the trials and tribulations of the advice community and has the battle scars to prove it,” said Chris Cummings, director general of AIFA. The organisation is recruiting a new policy director, who will head up the policy team. However, the AIFA will not be recruiting a new deputy director general, it said.