Navigating ongoing advice servicing challenges in wealth management
20/11/24
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Are you resource ready for a complaints and remediation spike?
Commercial success is not only about sales and customer loyalty during the good times, but also managing things effectively when they go wrong. With the right people in place to handle complaints and remediate customers with care and diligence during these uncertain times you’re more likely to be rewarded with customer trust and business in the future.
Market upheaval and customer vulnerability is creating a perfect storm for complaints and firms across the industry are battening down the hatches for the deluge any day now. Meanwhile CMCs, fat from the PPI feast, are smacking their lips and waiting in the wings.
Your greatest protection is having the pickings of skilled and experienced resource to augment your complaint handling and remediation teams at short notice. But do you know where or when complaints are likely to spike? Can you say what remediation projects are going to need to be prioritised? Will you have resource to find and vet new resource? How can you get the best quality resource on your projects when everyone is vying for the same people?
So many questions … but only one real answer.
Our resourcing team are continually reading the pulse of the contractor market. Having amassed a network of over 5000 contractors between them, they’ve formed relationships with the best in the market and know where resource is available (or soon will be). Crucially, they’re all experts in their field. They understand financial services and compliance and therefore what skills and experience are needed to give you the best outcome. Best of all, they’re in constant conversation with the wider consultant team, so know where remediation and complaints will be rising and are lining up resource to meet the demand as we speak.
Here’s where they’re currently focusing:
Sam Majumdar – Senior Consultant
“Pensions reviews have been a constant in the remediation market for a long time now and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. We’ve placed thousands of reviewers on pension review projects over the years and are seen as the leading provider of DB transfers resource in particular. This year, we suspect we will also see a rise in pensions switches reviews from defined contribution to personal pensions and income drawdown. Complaints will be driven by poor investment performance which, although not grounds for a complaint, will still make clients more likely to complain. As we’re so active in this sector we keep tabs on our go-to resource and know when they are likely to be available or whether they can be encouraged to move project.”
Anthony Harkess – Client Account Director
“We know that equity release is on the remediation horizon. The volume of sales has increased exponentially and we’re aware the FCA is concerned about suitability. The current situation is only likely to exacerbate that further as people seek access to the cash holed up in their homes. In preparation, we’ve already scoped out a bank of resource with the right skills, qualifications and experience to review this kind of specialist advice.”
Rory Jackson – Resourcing Manager
“Many protection and insurance claims are being rejected based on the current circumstances. These will inevitably end up in complaints and remediation. There is a wealth of PPI resource ready and waiting to fill these vacancies, but it’s sadly of variable quality. Call handling skills in particular are in great demand and will continue to be, yet it is a skillset not many have. We’ve seen projects run long and massively over budget due to poorly skilled and experienced resource. Often we’ve been called in to rescue projects and seen the headaches they cause, so we can’t stress enough how important it is to get the right people in.”
Jana Robinson – Specialist Resourcer
“I’d say one of the biggest remediation and complaints spikes will be in borrowing products, such as mortgages and loans. The situation will be pushing many to the brink financially and a potential lack of forbearance when the FCA’s temporary rules comes to an end will also contribute. We also believe mortgage endowments that are close to maturity might spur complaints about the initial advice. Despite some of them being time-barred, it won’t stop customers from complaining. We’ve supplied a lot of resources for mortgage related reviews in the past so have an enormous network of experienced complaint handlers and reviewers to choose from.”
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