Advisers told to prepare for more complaints

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Financial advisers have been warned to expect a wave of complaints to come when markets turn - as they will inevitably do.

Wednesday, November 14th 2018, 6:24AM 1 Comment

Financial Services Complaints chief executive Susan Taylor say there have been very few complaints against financial advisers in recent years, however that is all likely to change when markets turn down.

"The golden run won't last forever".

"When there is a correction there will be complaints. It's human nature that when people are losing money they will look for people to blame."

She is also concerned that many advisers have never lived through, or been advisers, during a market correction.

"These people are not doing enough to set clients' expectations," she says." Setting expectations will help you avoid complaints."

Taylor also told delegates at the SiFA conference that consumer behaviour is changing. People are expecting higher levels of service than they have in the past.

Also there has been a rise in what she call "difficult people."

"Consumers are becoming more challenging."

Taylor says FSCL gets around 2000 enquiries each year but the actual number which is dealt with by the scheme is much lower. The large majority are sent back to the the adviser or company and are dealt with by their internal processes.

TIPS

Taylor urged advisers to keep good notes about meetings and conversations with clients. It is not unusual to have a situation where parties can't even agree when a meeting took place. 

A good tip, when recording notes, is also to include something personal from the meeting. eg: the client may say something about their daughter graduating or their dog dying.

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