A number of IFAs have been contacting us with regards to poor services they have received from various product providers. A few of the examples we have been notified of include firstly Axa who have explained to one IFA that they currently have a turnaround time of 40 working days for pensions work! IFAs are then expected to inform their clients of the delay.
Secondly Aviva Health Care took two months to tell one IFA that they had changed the application form and explained that they could not proceed until the correct form was submitted.
These examples link in with the news stories surrounding Towry Law who have received IFA petitions. A group of Towry Law’s clients have set up a website called "Treating Customers Shabbily" where they are running a petition against the firm.
We are sure that there are equally plenty of examples of where IFAs have received good service from providers but as ever these instances are less frequently reported! Quite a few providers are already supporting IFAs through seminars and workshops, as they prepare for the RDR. However, this investment in training and development must be matched in treating IFAs and their customers fairly too!
We want to hear from you...Do you have stories about providers you are using? Which companies are offering a top-rate service and which are not coming up to scratch? Why not post a comment below and let other advisers know your thoughts...
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Comments
Darlington Building Society
When is a mortgage "portable"???
In the 30 odd years I have been in financial services a portable mortgage meant that subject to meeting the lenders requirements you could take your mortgage with them to your new house.
I was planning to downsize from a £404,000 mortgage to £100,000. My lifetime mortgage is base plus 1/2% making it a very attractive mortgage indeed.
When I told the Darlington of my plans they told me that the mortgage was only portable in the first two years preferrerential rate period. I appealed their decision to be told they were correct in their interpretation of portable.
Had I decided to continue my plans my new mortgage would be more expensive than the one I have now. How is that for treating customers fairly eh?
Anyway I have decided to stay put and they can lose the extra interest they would have earned from the £300,000 that would have been paid back to them amounting to about £9,000 per year.
Is this the start of the banks and building societies clawing back their not so profitable mortgages?
Service
Fair comments, no doubt about that, but let's try to understand the providers as well. I hate it when some of my colleagues moan about having problems with (what a surprise!) Indian call centers. To say the least, the comments about the level of service are not comlimentary. However, how on Earth do you expect fund platforms to cut their costs? How can some providers offer you quite attractive rates leaving number of people employed the same? Something should shrink and sometimes it is response time, sometimes quality of the advise we get over the phone, sometimes it's number of minutes we have to wait being in a queue when calling 0845 numbers. There is nothing we can do, competition is competition and the ways the companies have chosen in order to survive lead to one thing - we are (and will be) having problems with the clients. Of course, we can ask a lot, but let's face it, our requirements cannot be met. Not for the costs we are ready to pay. Do we expect nice taste from own-branded products of supermarkets? Not, really, do we? But to get something better, we need to pay at the till more. So let's either accept that we only get something we are paying for and if we want more, we need to take more money from OUR pockets, not the clients'.
P.S. Although, let's stay positive and hope the situation will change.
Service
The providers who offer the best service are the ones who allow their staff to own the issue/case, rather than a call centre who field the query to another dept where the importance of the message/situation is watered down. Accountability is missing!
Also why can't companies be realistic with their expectations, don't give IFA's the internal turnaround time, give the IFA the date they can expect to receive the response. Nothing more annoying than to be told that something will be done on friday 10th, to then find out that it was in the work queue for friday 10th, but will take 5 days from that date to complete and then needs posting!!
Vesting Options and Protection Policy Changes
I agree 100% with the individual above. We always try and get all options and the relevant paperwork together before discussing the way forward with the client, but few providers are capable of this.
With protection policies, Scopt Prov are particularly awful when trying to change benefits on what should have been "menu" plans when it comes to confirming what they require in order to amen the policy benefits. They never check to see whether the policy is in Trust, what Trust it is, not who the trustees are BEFORE telling the admin staff at an advisery firm what is needed.
Vesting Options
When considering vesting options, to prevent further delays ensure you ask for all forms required to consider annuity purchase, OMO and extrenal transfer under USP, after all you dont know what the advice will be until you are in receipt of all the figures and have carried out the necessary research, but the companies seem to think we have a crystal ball and know what actions the cleint will be taking before receipt of the figures.
I am finding rarely do providers include all of these forms and when you telephone for the simple form you are told it will take at least another 10 days to be put in the post. After insistence and speaking to MD's you normally get the forms faxed, but we should not have to do this.
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