Introducers: Advisers' responsibilities when accepting business

Concern from the regulator regarding the process through which consumers are being referred to authorised firms is not a new phenomenon. The regulatory dangers have been highlighted many times and are all too evident in cases where authorised firms switch personal pensions into self-invested personal pension (SIPP) arrangements to access non-mainstream investment solutions, often carried out on the direct instruction of the customer. Accepting direct requests to invest in high risk, unregulated and often offshore investment solutions, or accepting business from an introducer and deali...