Vanessa Barnes is managing partner at Hannay Wealth and a former director of the PFS
We don’t see assessment of vulnerability as a separate process and think many advisers and planners incorporate their understanding of potential vulnerability as part of their normal interactions with clients.
We have clients that we view as being in vulnerable circumstances all the time but, importantly, we also recognise that everyone can experience financial vulnerability some of the time.
As an example, Mrs B is a long-standing client, understands how her funds are invested and normally would not be classified as a vulnerable client.
She is profoundly distrustful of online processes and email although she will use email for basic communication, she always asks for important information to be posted. She mentioned a while ago that her regular postman had retired and the post had become more unreliable. Our documentation is sent by recorded delivery.
I received a call from one of the platforms hosting her Isa and GIA funds. They wanted us to confirm the details of her new bank account before they released the proceeds from the sale of all her funds. We knew the client would not have issued these instructions without talking to us so we asked them to wait while we investigated.
Mrs B immediately confirmed that she had not surrendered any of her holdings. It subsequently became apparent that a statement and tax voucher from the platform was missing and we think her post had been intercepted. The scammers had initially changed her address, then her bank account, then issued instructions to close her account.
Fortunately the platform operates a policy that when an advised client changes bank account, they will not forward funds until the adviser has verified the bank details.
Our main concern was whether the details of any other investments had been obtained and in our view, the client had become vulnerable. We contact every one of her providers and alerted them to the fact that she had been the victim of attempted fraud. We requested that any instructions received from the client should be verified by us and we repeated these instructions a couple of moths later.
There was another attempt to withdraw money from the client's bank account but this was also thwarted. We have tried to encourage the client to consider using encrypted portals but in the meantime we have provided a schedule of the statements that she should expect to receive directly from providers so that she can identify if anything has gone missing.
Advisers and planners are alert to the needs of the vulnerable but also provide tangible support in the event that someone becomes vulnerable due to circumstances beyond their control.
Another example of this situation, that we have sadly experienced too often this year, is dealing with the recently bereaved.
Not only have they become emotionally vulnerable but some of them are exhausted from acting as a carer for their partner.
Many are not in the best position to make the decisions regarding their future. We try to maintain a minimum level of changes to their investments until we feel they have started to recover from the grieving process.
We ensure that the appropriate income or capital is available but advise against radical changes to their situation until months or even a year has past.
As a team we regularly discuss cases and share information regarding how vulnerable circumstances can arise. The role of the adviser and planner is vital to support clients and to strengthen their financial resilience.
