Evidence, evidence, evidence
Also on the panel was John Porteous, managing director of central financial services for Charles Stanley. He reiterated it was all about evidencing you are doing the right thing by clients as an adviser, rather than just claiming to understand it.
He told the audience: "Show me you are on the pathway to data-driven decision making. I heard an expression recently -'find the signal, filter the noise'.
"And that is what we have to do here. We need to be able to evidence our modus operandi. To show that we understand consumer duty, and how it affects our decision-making."
Speaking to claims that consumer duty is just Treating Customers Fairly 2.0, Porteous added: "The differences between this and TCF is the evidence and the data and the culture.”
He said he had seen some great technology that has helped to canvass opinions from clients about the service and what the client has seen through “their side of the telescope”.
Richards agreed. He added: "Look, advisers have been putting the customer first for years, but they have not always been good at capturing the value of what they do.
"They have always been doing great things; now they have to capture that, and evidence that for the regulator."
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
