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Newsletter - New forums, new campaign and more

NEW FORUMS, NEW CAMPAIGN AND MORE

NEWSLETTER – OCTOBER 2023

ALLIANCE IN FOCUS

There was no let-up in Consumer Duty Alliance activity over the summer months and the coming months look set to become even busier as the sharing of good practice and FCA assessment is likely to drive further action.

Membership of the Alliance continues to grow and we have seen great examples of evolutionary change, leading to positive outcomes for both consumers and firms. Some changes, in particular to charges and fair value, have also been widely covered in the media, including consumer press.

In recent weeks, the Alliance has continued to engage the regulator, spoken at various industry forums, participated in judging various industry awards, including three consecutive days of intense chairing of the prestigious Schroder UK Platform Awards.

The first in a series of ‘Cutting Through the Consumer Duty Noise’ webinars launched in September, chaired by ex-FCA technical specialist, Michael Lawrence. You can view the first webinar here and look out for the November and December events which will focus on how the Duty impacts Centralised Investment Propositions, and what Consumer Duty means for the Mortgage and Protection profession.

We're also planning a Technology Forum focusing on Cyber Security and Consumer Duty for Friday 10 November at noon. Get the latest Alliance news by following us on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

A new guide is also available for firms with tips on how to prepare your first Consumer Duty Board Report which must be completed by 31 July 2024 – it seems a long way off now but we hope this makes the planning process a bit easier. To accompany this, we're developing a more comprehensive Good Practice Guide to Board Reports, please let us know if there's anything you think we should include.

Consumer Engagement - raising awareness is essential and we are delighted to support the financial advice campaign initiative by VouchedFor. The campaign will be running in 2024, aiming to reach over 3 million consumers to raise public awareness and ultimately stimulate engagement amongst the 8 million consumers who have a need for professional advice and the ability to pay for it, but who are not engaging, often due to lack of awareness or trust. You can read more about the Guide to Top Rated Financial Advisers campaign below.

The professional Alliance continues to grow and we are delighted to see so many back-office staff also sign-up. The more people the Alliance represents, the greater the influence we can have collectively.

Very best wishes,

Keith Richards, CEO, Consumer Duty Alliance and Chairman, Financial Vulnerability Taskforce

New campaign to change public perception of advisers

VouchedFor, the campaign review website, has announced its biggest-ever campaign for the 2024 Guide to Top Rated Financial Advisers. It aims to change public perceptions of the financial advice profession, help people understand what advice is and how it could benefit them.

The campaign will share positive client stories and articles, and call out those advisers and firms who have received excellent client feedback on the VouchedFor platform.

VouchedFor expects the guide to reach over 3m consumers (treble the reach of previous campaigns) and it will be featured in three national newspapers (The Times, Mail on Sunday and Telegraph) across March, June and September.

The advice profession needs initiatives like this to positively influence consumer perceptions and help bridge the advice gap. Get more information about the campaign and how to register your interest in taking part.

Five tips to help with BOARD report preparation

The clock’s already counting down to the 31 July 2024 deadline for firms to produce their first annual Board Report.

These reports should reflect the firm’s assessment of how they've complied with Consumer Duty rules and any remedial actions taken or planned to address any risks or issues identified.

This new guide from the Consumer Duty Alliance explains what’s required, how the FCA will use them and provides five prompts to help you start the process.

Cutting through the Consumer Duty noise; what really matters?

Our first Consumer Duty Champions’ Forum on 19 September proved extremely popular, covered a lot of ground and generated very positive feedback.

If you missed the live event, hosted by Bovill, you can view the recording here.

The Forum Chairman, Michael Lawrence, is busy planned more events and we hope to announce details of the next one soon.

New research – Your business in a changing world

This research seeks to understand adviser views on value, source of cost within the practice, major business challenges and opportunities.

It covers Consumer Duty and asks what’s changed and what work is still to be done in the practice.

It also asks about how long it takes to carry out various processes like fact finds and suitability reports – so you’ll find the report acts as a really useful source of benchmark data.

There’s a chance to win £200 in Amazon Vouchers and all respondents get a copy of the full report. Survey closes 5pm Monday 23 October.

What are your views? Take part in the survey.

Please email us or contact one of the directors below:

Keith Richards

Chief Executive Officer

keith.richards@consumerduty.org

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Robin Melley

Director

robin.melley@consumerduty.org

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Tony Miles

Secretariat

tony.miles@consumerduty.org

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