Sadly the ban does not cover other types of investments, so scammers will still be able to cold call for those, but I feel the increased awareness will also be effective in cutting this as a source of victims for the scammers.
Thankfully the draft legislation also includes proposals to communicate that message to the public. I think we have already seen increased activity on scam awareness in the past two years with campaigns by the FCA and The Pensions Regulator under Project Bloom.
Many life companies and the Association of British Insurers supported the campaign for the ban, notably Royal London, Aegon and Retirement Advantage (now part of Canada Life) among others. All providers need to help spread the message in their marketing and client communications.
As a profession we can help by spreading the word about scams and the ban at networking groups, in blogs, client newsletters and articles in parish magazines – anything.
Every scam costs us money through the FSCS but more importantly, every scam weakens us as a profession. It does not matter whether the scam involved a regulated adviser or not; it will be reported that a ‘financial adviser’ ripped them off.
We can all, must all, play our part to combat the scammers and improve the image of our profession. This ban is just one small step in doing that.
Darren Cooke is a chartered financial planner at Red Circle Financial Planning
