March is officially Consumer Rights Month. “Through laws such as the Financial Services Regulatory Act (FSRA), the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act (FAIS), the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) approach as well as consumer education, the FSCA looks to help safeguard an individual’s finances and financial consumer rights,” the FSCA tweeted.
As a result, the FSCA has published a consumer booklet titled: “Safeguard your finances”. The booklet, amongst other things, highlights the purpose of the FAIS Act, i.e. to protect consumers of financial services and to professionalise the financial services industry. As a result, the FAIS Act places certain requirements on providers of financial services to ensure that consumers receive proper financial advice, that they are provided with sufficient information to make informed financial decisions and that they are dealing with fit and proper financial advisors and intermediaries.
Although the booklet has been written with the consumer in mind, it’s also a reminder of our service offering to our clients. For example, the safeguard rules of “Never gamble when it comes to investment”, “Do not follow blindly”, “Do not invest blindly”, “Diversify your investment portfolio”, “Manage your risk actively” and “Educate yourself” are all important talking points with your client, ultimately leading to clearly articulated fairness outcomes for the client and putting the client at the centre of your business – a win-win situation for all.
Click here to download the FSCA booklet.
