The FCA, to give it its shorter title is the independent watchdog that regulates all financial and insurance firms – this ranges from the largest multinational bank, to financial advisers operating as sole traders. The FCA handbook lays down the rules and guidance to which all regulated Advisers must adhere to. The rules are freely available from the FCA’s website– www.fca.org.uk. Please note by clicking on this link you will leave our website and enter into a third party website of which our firm is not responsible for the content.

Independent advisers are able to select product for customers from the whole of market – that means they can potentially recommend any product from any company providing it suits the customer’s needs and objectives. With such a wide choice of companies, investments and saving tools the customer can be reassured that they are not simply being provided with a standard recommendation – and are getting personalised advice.

To ensure you do get personal advice your financial adviser will collect certain details about you and your circumstances to enable him to advise you. Remember to be as open and honest as you can because the adviser’s recommendation will be based on the information you provide.

All financial advisers have to provide their customers with the relevant important disclosure documents, detailing the following: information on services provided by the firm, how the firm is paid for the business it conducts, their complaints procedure, Data Protection and coverage under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). You can ask to see our disclosure documents at any time, simply contact us for these.

Your adviser will always endeavour to ensure the products recommended are suitable for you.  When the adviser is advising you on regulated products (including investments, insurance and some forms of mortgages) you have the protection of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

If you are unhappy about the advice or service you have received you should firstly contact the firm that provided the advice or service. This gives them the chance to put things right and/or to provide their own version of events. Should you remain dissatisfied you may be entitled to refer your complaint to the FOS who will investigate the complaint independently and make a ruling. The FOS work with customers and financial advisers to resolve a complaint, and when they do have to make a ruling it is binding upon the firm. Full details of how to contact the FOS together with information about how to complain are available from their website – www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk or by telephoning 0800 023 4567.

If you try to submit a complaint to a firm and the firm is dissolved, or unable to meet its obligations, you may have recourse to the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme). This service is funded by levies on firms that are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to protect customers where firms have closed or gone into liquidation.

Some financial advisers do give advice on products that are not regulated by FCA – such as general taxation and some Buy-to-Let mortgages. Your adviser will explain to you when you are receiving advice on an unregulated product. It is important you are happy with the advice as you may not have the added protection of the FOS or FSCS when dealing with some unregulated products.

Part of our service to you involves understanding your financial goals and assessing your attitudes to risk. We then use these to plan realistic and tax efficient solutions.  And by applying our financial planning tools and running your profile through our internal modelling, we can propose short, medium and long term approaches, and illustrate the returns you might achieve.

By agreeing a clear investment strategy at the planning stage, we can exploit our expertise and knowledge of the various financial providers to potentially maximise your financial security for the future.