CompaniesOct 16 2015

Helm Godfrey on why insistent clients aren’t scary

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Helm Godfrey on why insistent clients aren’t scary

Graham Cross, chief executive of Helm Godfrey, says he has no plans to turn away clients if they are insistent on not following advice.

In the latest FTAdviser video interview, Mr Cross said the way Helm Godfrey is giving advice on pension freedoms, and dealing with insistent clients, is very different.

As a firm, he said if you are ensuring you are actually understanding your client and making sure they understand the implications of the actions they are taking “there is really nothing to be feared about advising clients about the way they need to manage their finances.”

Speaking to FTAdviser’s Emma Ann Hughes about insistent clients, he said: “If they do need to take money from their pension, for a very good reason, then clearly that is what they should do.”

If a client was insistent, Mr Cross said he would give them all the risk warnings and added while he had not had insistent clients he would not sever a relationship just because an individual does not want to take advice.

Last month Rory Percival, technical specialist for the Financial Conduct Authority, hit back at a lawyer and former chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds, who branded the regulator ‘wishy washy’ on insistent clients.

Robin Ellison, head of strategic development for pensions at Pinsent Masons, told a packed room of advisers in Edinburgh that the FCA had failed to deliver a “proper response” on insistent clients.

Speaking at FTAdviser’s retirement freedoms forum, Mr Ellison said the FCA had delivered a “wishy washy” response on insistent clients “not a real response”.

However, Mr Percival said the regulator had published a factsheet on insistent clients, stating this three-page document clearly spelt out the three key steps advisers need to take with those who do not follow advice.

Mr Percival said: “It is important you give this advice. This is the normal advice process. If the client insists on doing something, or not doing something, then you can’t bypass what you have to do as an adviser.”

During the video interview, Mr Cross also talks about the impact of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme levy on his firm.

He said: “We have still managed to stay profitable but we have seen our FSCS levy increase year by year.

“There is always the worry and uncertainty that we are never going to be quite sure of what that levy is going to be.

“From a budgetary perspective it is always quite difficult to plan for the future when you don’t know exactly what reserves you need to have in place to deal with that.

“We have been fortunate in that we have been able to cover that quite comfortably but the uncertainty is not helpful.

“Like most firms we would really like the FCA to find a way of addressing the problems of the FSCS in a different way than just landing random burdens on us from time to time.

“Inevitably it seems to be mostly about products so some sort of product levy seems to be fairer than a levy landed purely on the advisers. That seems to be a fairer way of doing it.

“One of the challenges we have with regulation is that in certain elements you wonder if the FCA understands entirely what we do.”