Trigon advice shortcomings incur £10,500 penalty

Trigon, an independent pension consultancy has paid a £10,500 fine for not effectively overseeing TFS, its sole appointed representative, which offers independent financial advice. During a thematic visit in January 2006, the FSA’s Small Firms Division (SFD) looked at six customer files and found poor know your customer information, notably relating to objectives, attitude to risk and affordability; lack of monitoring by management of advice given to customers; and deficient information about the nature of business transacted, which meant that it was not possible to establish if customers had been treated fairly (Principle 6). SFD also came across inadequate suitability letters and learnt that some disclosure documents had not been supplied until after the associated recommendation. The firm’s T&C scheme, although documented, was not followed, individual advisers’ training needs had not been considered and training plans put in place. Key performance indicators for advisers were not kept up to date and reviewed nor were fit and proper checks made.