Network

Financial offers Network services to a broad cross section of advisers.

We give you a licence to trade, deal with the FSA on your behalf, monitor your business to ensure compliance and have as little to do with your commission as possible - allowing you to get on with your business.

Members of our Network benefit from a competitive fixed fee which includes your FSA, FOS, FSCS, and PII costs.

All commissions are paid directly to you with no deductions from Financial.

The services listed below are ALL included in your membership fees, however please visit our 'Additional Services' section for details of the optional services you can purchase separately.

  • File checks

    Our standard monitoring programme checks files on a ratio of one case in every eight. Our file checkers select a cross section of the business you write in terms of different types, different products and different levels of risk. Assessments are carried out on a quality of advice basis. Feedback is provided to help provide evidence for Treating Customers Fairly and to support adviser´s Continuous Professional Development. We also employ an increased level of checking on high risk cases such as pension cases. This involves checking 100% of cases until advisers can demonstrate a high level of competency on a consistent

  • Compliance visits

    Your allocated Regional Compliance Manager will visit you once a year to provide on-site support to your business. We aim to go though a range of compliance areas including Treating Customers Fairly to help run your firm compliantly. They will provide you with a report following the visit with helpful suggestions for your business.

  • Desk based supervision

    We monitor your performance against our standards on an on-going basis. We can carry out a risk based review of this on either a quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis based on your risk profile. This is carried out by your Regional Compliance Manager and they will contact you to discuss any issues we identify.

  • Training and development

    Our Training and Competency team organise regular seminars, workshops and events across the country. We recognise the importance of Continuous Professional Development for all IFAs and provide each Network member with a CPD register on Phossil – our compliance management system.

    We also support members with an innovative learning system, Financial Expert. This is a facility whereby you can access the level 4 learning material, which will be updated regularly for your benefit. You will be able to read the material and then confirm your knowledge by way of short multiple-choice tests, helping you to fulfil your requirement for structured CPD. Click to find out more

  • Forthcoming events from Financial

  • PI insurance

    We have FSA compliant cover which will insure you as a member of our Network. You may be asked to pay for the FSA Compliant excess (£5,000) on any claim, but no more, unless you have been fraudulent.

  • Complaints management

    If you do get a complaint, then this must be forwarded to us without delay for investigation. We use a separate firm within the group to investigate complaints on behalf of our Network members. They use a team of complaint handlers to investigate the case and produce a report in answer to the client´s concerns.

    This approach helps us promote objectivity in handling our Network complaints and is in keeping with the culture of Treating Customers Fairly. (Link to TCF section)

  • Technical support

    In addition to the Regional Compliance Managers supporting our Network members, we have a technical team based at our head office to answer and deal with any compliance issues you may have.

    This includes technical issues on:

    • Mortgages
    • Equity Release
    • Pensions
    • IHT
    • Investments
    • Fund Management
    • Long Term Care

    The technical team can give you assistance on writing suitability reports including more specialist areas such as Occupational Pension Transfers, Pension Draw down Equity Release and Long Term Care. For further assistance, members can also access our document library on Phossil which has a range of compliance materials that can assist you. (Link to Phossil document library)

  • Template documents and reports

    Members can access our FREE document library on Phossil which has a range of compliance materials designed to assist you. These documents are regularly updated to ensure you are running your business compliantly. (Link to Phossil document library)

  • Phossil – Management information

    We have developed our own compliance management system Phossil to manage your information. It is a web based system that you can access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

    This provides some of the evidence you and the Network require to demonstrate the collection of Treating Customers Fairly Management Information. It includes a number of useful functions to help you manage your business including:

    • Turnover - Track your commission payments from the providers you use
    • New Business - Pipeline manage the business you have written
    • Key performance indicators - Monitor your performance against our standards

    The system enables us to adopt a risk based approach to your supervision, targeting the areas where we can give you the support you need.

  • Weekly updates

    We provide our Network members with weekly publications. Our Financial Updates cover a variety of necessary topics, including; recent regulatory news, compliance requirements, and reminders of forthcoming events. These communications also count towards your CPD record.

  • Promotions sign offs

    Our internal compliance team are able to check and sign off all your marketing collateral, including newsletters, local advertising, websites, and stationary.