About the FCA
The FCA are the conduct regulator for around 51,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have already begun enforcement investigations into firms believed to have given bad advice to customers with regards to transferring out of their pension schemes. 47% of reviewed cases were found to have been given advice that was unsuitable, with 32% having ‘information gaps’.
“A well-functioning advice market needs advisers who know how to deliver suitable advice and can help consumers understand what that advice means for them, so that consumers can make informed decisions” https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/finalised-guidance/fg21-3.pdf
Click here to find out more about the FCA
How to be the best at what you do
Firms and individuals need to be authorised or registered by the FCA to carry out certain activities and when it comes to being a Financial Adviser and giving advice, it’s not WHAT you do but it’s the WAY you do it, that is of paramount importance. The road to high-quality information can be a difficult one to navigate. So, let us support you in what’s ACTUALLY needed to be able to develop robust logical thinking, strengthen your advice and ensure that your advice stands up to external interrogation.
Every year, there’s a pile of shiny new things to learn. As a PTS/financial adviser, you must remain compliant and keep your CPD up to date, but you only have a limited amount of time. You want to be effective at your job, pursue things that interest you, have time to pursue your hobbies, hang out with your partner/family, and take the dog for a walk. Always asking yourself how you can make the best use of your limited time.
You have to get the fundamental stuff right FIRST. Doing the right stuff the right way is what’s going to have the most impact. By focusing on the key skills, we are going to help you learn how to be competent at the highest level, by developing robust technical knowledge AND strong analytical thinking to ensure that your advice stands up to challenge by your clients, the FCA and the FOS adjudicators.
After over a decade of working in Financial Services, we’ve learned the key to remaining compliant and being the best at what you do is about getting the fundamentals right. It’s vitally important that you take responsibility for your own education and go DEEP to build the core career skills you want to improve on. Flitting from CPD framework to framework without understanding the fundamentals of what it actually means for you, your clients and your business is a recipe for disaster.
How can we help
We will be launching our ‘Think Like An Adviser’ series in the New Year. This is only the start…the foundations we are laying now are key. We are laying the foundations for critical thinking, critical analysis and critical evaluation. ALL essential skills for ANY Adviser or student! How do you reflect on the information you are given either from observation, experience or communication? Why is this important? How do FOS use it in their investigations? All these questions and more answered in our ‘Think Like An Adviser’ series.
We then move on to the next step: the application of this thinking into real cases. Real cases which have had FOS decisions (and some FCA decisions) applied to them.
With our ongoing support you’ll learn how to be a professional practitioner applying your skills at the highest level of competence and have processes in place that make you and your business compliant. Our objective is to is to implement and maintain a transparent, unmistakable and clearly understandable culture of compliance.
Afterwards, you will be able to maximise your impact and still have enough time left to walk the dog!
