Every adviser, and every principal of an adviser, has to consider this question. Like any risk, early recognition can lead to more effective mitigation. Mitigation can, first and foremost, mean changes in business practice. But past business reviews are also in the same stable.
Ever since George Osborne’s “pension freedoms” gave rise to compulsory advice on pension transfers this area has suffered from high volumes of advice transactions that could give rise to redress liabilities.
Two programmes of work in which Congruent can assist (a) estimating the potential liability or (b) conducting past business reviews. Both programmes include extracting data and statistics from the portfolio of past business.
From this data Congruent can calculate the potential total liability, if a proportion of the sales – which might be determined by a compliance review of the portfolio – were non-compliant. Or, at a more detailed level, the potential liability can be determined at an individual level to be used for a past business review.
Congruent are experts at calculating redress in accordance with the Financial Conduct Authority handbook DISP Appendix 4 (commonly referred to as “DISP App 4”). We do not rely on the interpretation of third party software providers – every single aspect of the calculations has been studied by Congruent and built into its in-house software. Congruent software has been used for many thousands of calculations.
Additionally, although the provisions of DISP App 4 are very detailed exceptions continually arrise and Congruent has handled many and built up a considerable body of relevant knowledge. In addition, Congruent has experience of preparing expert evidence in a number of cases where there is a dispute.
Congruent has invested heavily in systems and produces a very detailed audit trail for each calculation that it makes. And a further spin-off of automation is that Congruent is able to offer a very competitive cost.