Consumer Duty: What does the FCA expect from ongoing advice services?

The FCA wrote to 20 major financial advice firms requesting information on their ongoing advice charges, signalling scrutiny of fair value and consumer understanding under the Consumer Duty.

What happened?

The FCA wrote to 20 major financial advice firms requesting information on their ongoing advice charges, signalling its intention to focus on how firms are revising their approach in line with the Consumer Duty’s fair value and consumer understanding requirements. In Money Marketing, TCC’s Technical Director David Boyhan outlined what firms can expect from the FCA’s next steps.

Why does it matter?

Firms offering ongoing advice services need to be able to show that customers are actually receiving the ongoing service they are charged for, and that charges reflect fair value, since this is now an area of direct regulatory information requests rather than general guidance.