In product sales data, tell us whether customers received advice from the product provider or their intermediary before buying the product.
Q: What is meant by advice?
A: By advice we mean the regulated activity of advising a client on the merits of entering into a particular contract.
Q: What should we do if an intermediary firm has not indicated if a sale was advised?
A: If the provider undertook all reasonable steps to get the advised/non-advised data but was not able to obtain this information from the intermediary firm, they may be able to make reasonable assumptions about whether the sale was likely to have been advised or not.
Q: How should direct offer sales be reported?
A: Direct offer sales should be reported as non-advised sales.
Q: My company offers its investment funds and undertakes administration to members of occupational pension schemes, group personal pension plans, group stakeholder pensions and bulk buy out contracts. In these cases, no investment advice is given to members. We send out a direct offer pack to the employer's HR consisting of KFD and application form and the employees then decide whether they wish to join the plan by filling the application form and returning same to us. Can we treat this business as direct offer and therefore non-advised?
A: As the firm will not be giving advice itself, these transactions can be treated as non-advised.
Q: Most of our annuities are set up when pension policies mature with no intermediary being involved at this stage. The clients will normally select an option from an option sheet which was sent to them, there is no other contact with the client at this time. In these cases, can we assume there was no advice given?
A: In these cases it can be assumed there was no advice given.