Mr Steel was the first person in the industry to expose the Equitable Life scandal and was also highly critical of any products he considered poor value for money, including endowment mortgages and with-profits bonds.

For most of his career, he ran his own company, Alan Steel Asset Management, which he set up in his hometown of Linlithgow in 1975.

He was voted the best investment IFA in the UK-wide industry polling on three occasions, the firm today employs 41 staff managing more than £1.5 billion of client assets.

• The full obituary can be found in The Herald.