Abrdn has unveiled a suite of resources to help advisers prepare for the Financial Conduct Authority’s new Consumer Duty regime.
The materials will provide advisers with an overview of the Consumer Duty along with timescales for implementation and step-by-step guides covering the four key outcomes of the regulation.
‘Products and Services’ will offer support to ensure the design of products and services meet the needs of clients; ‘Price and Value’ will help ensure the products and services are fit for purpose and represent fair value for clients, while the ‘Consumer and Understanding’ guide will focus on offering support to ensure communications give clients the right information at the right time to allow them to make effective decisions, abrdn said.
Finally, the investment company will provide a ‘Consumer Support’ guide to ensure clients can act on decisions without facing unreasonable barriers.
Alastair Black, head of industry change at abrdn, said: “We’ve developed this range of practical support with the help of our adviser partners to get them started on developing a suitable framework for implementing the Consumer Duty.
“Good client outcomes are already wired into adviser firms’ day-to-day operations. Many will already be delivering on what the Consumer Duty aims to achieve by virtue of existing regulatory alignment and the processes that are needed to give ‘good’, suitable client-specific advice. It’s why I’m confident that compliance won’t mean a radical overhaul of systems and procedures for the majority of firms. However, there are still steps that need to be taken, and advisers may need support getting everything in order.”
Black added: “Taking prompt action now to review the rules against their existing systems and processes will pay dividends in understanding what is needed, with an implementation plan that has to be approved by the end of October, to ensure everything can be done by the end of July 2023.”
