One of the biggest problems an adviser can face is a complaint. And those complaints can come in for a few reasons.
It might be that the client feels that you have missold a product to them; you’ve not given the best advice or the client’s best mate made a complaint and got £500 compensation and they fancy trying for the same.
The last reason we can’t do much about, these things will happen sometimes.
But there is something in common for points one and two and they CAN be avoided.
DEDICATED PROTECTION TRAINING
The way that you can avoid them is by having dedicated protection insurance training that covers not only product information but also clear compliance guidance, underwriting insights and more.
Thorough compliance techniques and recommendation reports are key to protecting you against a complaint. This doesn’t mean that you need to sit hours of boring compliance text or write endless reports.
The key is to understand compliance in its simplest form and take everything back to basics. It will save you time and it will help you improve your factfinding and conversion.
KILLING MOMENTUM
Complaints are horrible for everyone involved. The client feels rubbish, you feel rubbish and you are going to have to put significant time and resources into defending your work.
And depending upon the situation you might even find that your job or company is at risk.
Years ago we were approached by the FOS as they had received a complaint about another firm.
The firm had arranged a mortgage for someone but had not done life insurance because the person had health conditions and they didn’t think they could get life insurance.
The question for us? Could we have insured that person.
The answer? Unfortunately, yes. We could have found them life insurance and the family would now not be facing that huge debt.
REAL REGULATION
Terrible outcome for the client, embarrassing situation for the adviser. So this isn’t just about potential situations, this is actual real conversations that we have had with regulators.
This was before the days of signposting so you can imagine how intense these situations are now that you have specialists here, there and everywhere to use.
Getting the right training is key to making sure that you not only get the best outcomes for clients but that you also protect yourself and your company too.
The beauty of embedding compliance into your advice is that you end up doing a far better job for your clients. This then leads to greater conversion and retention figures because you have built a more in-depth knowledge base and your expertise shines through.
