What every client should know considering insurance or mortgage
When we wish to take out an insurance policy or perhaps seek out the best mortgage available, it invariably boils down to finding the best consultants in the field. There are some important facts to which we should pay attention when we receive advice of a financial nature.
Essential information about your adviser:
- The adviser should identify themselves, determine to whom they are responsible and ultimately their authorising body and provide information about the scope of their advice – if they can advise on products from the whole of the market or maybe from a single company, or a single group of companies. All this information should be covered in a document called “Service and Costs Disclosure Document”. The document is always marked with the “Key Facts” logo.
- Adviser needs to present the “Terms of Business” document – which informs the client about their rights and duties, e.g. information about how their data is stored and shared according to Data Protection Act 1998, about the client’s money or duty of disclosure.
- The client must be informed of any charges arising from financial advice before going forward.
- All firms and individuals that carries out regulated financial service activities in the UK (e.g. insurance companies, banks, building societies and independent financial advisers, investment managers and stockbrokers) must be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. This is a financial regulatory body supervising the work of financial institutions in the UK.
The consultant should at the very outset state that their services are regulated by the FCA.
If all of these conditions are met by your adviser, you can be sure that you’re dealing with a competent individual and with assured confidence that you can you take advantage of their services.