The Sandler suite - bad shoes for poor people?

The aim is worthy, the need great but will stakeholder products catch on and how will the basic advice regime work in practice: Adam Samuel considers.

Adam Samuel BA LLM MSFA MAQ, compliance and complaint handling consultant and trainer, can be contacted on tel 020 7586 1938; email AdamSamuel@aol.com, website www.adamsamuel.co.uk

Ron Sandler has earned his place in financial services history by recommending the creation of a series of stakeholder products, the so-called Sandler suite. He was concerned that vast numbers of poorer people lacked access to financial products. One reason for this is that the cost of marketing to people with limited funds to invest made the endeavour difficult to justify financially. Part of the problem centred round the fact that FSA Conduct of Business rules cost too much to comply with in low-value transactions. He put forward the idea of simplified products that could be marketed without full compliance and so break into this difficult market.