But he went onto say that while the conditions of entry do not change, "obviously the lens that we look through when we're assessing firms against those threshold conditions is 'Can they meet and comply with all the requirements of the handbook as they apply to them?'
"So, with the consumer duty, that's going to mean that throughout the firm's application, so throughout all of their systems and controls, their regulatory business plan, they really demonstrate that they've put the customer at the heart of what they do.
"It also means... they are able to develop, design, distribute products and services that meet their needs, which are of fair value and that customers can understand."
The FCA admitted that newcomers are "going to need to provide quite a lot of information in their application form and probably also in some supporting documents, like their regulatory business plan".
This is everything from around the wording of communications and forms, having specific policies to ensure annual meeting outcome plans are in accordance with consumer duty, and outlining how future products and services that may be provided would meet obligations under the duty.
MacDermott continued: "So, I suppose what I'm saying is there's a lot in the consumer duty and it does mean that we're going to have a different lens that we look at when we look at application forms."
Advisers wanting to go it alone are going to have to take someone with them - like Frodo took Sam.
Only in this case, Sam is an extremely experienced compliance consultant and business creation specialist, who can talk the newcomer through every single potential scenario before those plans go through the 'different lens' of which the regulator has given fair warning.
It will be interesting to see whether there is a tail-off of new firms receiving authorisation post-July 2023 and in the months following.
My gut tells me it will be a while before there are a significant number of bold new entrants into an advice market that so desperately needs that injection of entrepreneurial spirits.
