FOS: Compliance box-ticking not always enough to win complaint

Carmen Reichman
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The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has warned advisers and paraplanners that "ticking all the boxes from a compliance point of view" may not be enough to win in a complaint case.

In its latest Ombudsman newsletter the FOS said taking a "fair and reasonable approach from the outset" could help advisers avoid some problems in the first place. The FOS' comment came in respose to an adviser's query of its “fair and reasonable” principle in deciding cases. The adviser said: "It seems that I could do everything my regulator requires me to, but the ombudsman could still say I haven't been 'fair' and uphold a complaint against me. How am I supposed to know what to do?" The ombudsman replied that it did not "ignore the law or tear up the regulator's rule book" but s...

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