FCA suitability report good practice states that you should use “clear and plain language” and that “overly long reports may reduce a customer’s ability to consider the recommendations being made”.
A good report will cut to the chase and explain concisely the reasons for the recommendation (the reasons WHY) and should not replicate what is contained in other documents, only refer to them.
Supporting information (for example, Glossary of Terms, Attitude to Risk definitions, Fact Find snapshot) should wherever possible be contained in appendices so that the reasons why are not diluted.



Pension Transfers – considering a workplace pension
Alistair MacDougall Compliance Defined Benefit, FCA, Pension, Pension Transfer, PI, Switch, transfer
We recently reviewed a pension transfer report where the client was recommended to transfer out of the defined benefit scheme into the client’s pre-existing SIPP. We considered that the recommendation to transfer appeared to be appropriate. However, the client had what the FCA calls an ‘available qualifying scheme’, more commonly referred to as a […]