Article by Phil
The Financial Vulnerability Taskforce (FVT) has been set up by the Personal Finance Society in order to promote better understanding of vulnerability and to establish good behaviour and good practice in relation to vulnerability in the personal finance sector. This has been promoted through a new Charter which is being adopted by financial services firms to support the strategy.
The Personal Finance Society is part of the Chartered Insurance Institute which is world’s largest professional finance and insurance body.
The Charter sets out nine steps or commitments for firms to adopt:
- Making advice easier to understand
- Placing your interests above all else
- Understanding how your circumstances might make you vulnerable.
- Not making assumptions about you
- Not labelling you
- Dealing with you sensitively
- Adapting processes and maintaining your confidentiality
- Ensuring staff are knowledgeable and appropriately trained.
- Taking appropriate action if you in harm’s way
We fully support the aims of the taskforce and have signed up to the Charter. For well-established firms like ours who have been providing advice to the “general public” for many years, these commitments are almost second nature and have been integral parts of our business for years now. But it is always worth stepping back to reassess working practices and renewing even the most embedded commitments to ensure that client welfare remains at the heart of our culture.
We have updated our Vulnerable Persons Policy in line with the nine recommendations.
More details about the aims of the Charter can be found on our website. Alongside signposting to a wide range of services which might be helpful for anyone finding themselves in vulnerable circumstances.
The Personal Finance Society have also provided some helpful links as well.
