WHEN'S a sales rep not a plain honest-to-goodness sales rep? When he's a personal financial adviser or a counsellor.

The dispute between Irish Life and its personal financial advisers has led the Margin to ruminate on that conundrum. After all, what Irish Life's personal financial advisers actually do is advise somebody on which Irish Life product they should buy not whether the Irish Life product is the best on the market.

The same applies to Lifetime Assurance's "counsellors".

Do these people "counsel" one on the best product on the market? Well, not really, they'll "counsel" on which Lifetime product to buy.