Private Clients Terms of Business

 

Status

 

Modern Money Financial Services Limited, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to advise on and arrange transactions in non-investment protection contracts e.g. life assurance, personal and group pensions, pension transfer business, unit trusts, investment trusts, personal equity plans (PEP’s), Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), open ended investment companies (OEIC’s) and mortgages.  We may also provide advice on or arrange transactions in units in unregulated collective investment schemes. Modern Money Financial Services Limited is entered on the FSA register and our registration number is 150571

 

As Independent Financial Advisers who are regulated by the FSA we are obliged to give you our Private Customer Terms of Business and would ask you to sign below and return a copy of the same to our office as confirmation of receipt.

 

Advice

 

We offer you independent financial advice and undertake not to transact any business on your behalf in which we, or one of our customers, have a material interest without first informing you in writing and obtaining your consent.

 

When we have arranged any investments for which you have given us instructions, we will not give you any further advice unless you request it but will be pleased to advise you at any time you ask us to do so.

 

Under the terms of this agreement, we may if appropriate advise you on investments which are not readily realisable. We would draw your attention to the risks associated with these designated investments as there is a restricted market for them. In some circumstances it may therefore not be possible to deal in the designated investment or obtain reliable information about its value.

 

We will obtain certain facts about your personal and financial circumstances including investment objectives and attitude to risk ensuring that any recommendations meet with your requirements.  Should you decline to provide full facts regarding your circumstances we will only advise you in accordance with the information that you have supplied or requested.

 

Instructions

 

We require our clients to give us instructions in writing to avoid any possible disputes.   We will however accept verbal instructions provided they are subsequently confirmed in writing

 

Authority to act on your behalf may be terminated at any time with immediate effect by either party giving notice in writing to the other. This shall not prejudice the completion of any transactions initiated prior to the receipt of such written notice.

 

Charges / Commission

 

We derive income from commission paid to us by life assurance companies and unit trust managers with whom investments are made. The amount of commission will be disclosed to you.

 

On rare occasions we may receive a type of benefit from the introduction of business to a product provider or other firm.  We will not transact business or make a recommendation which is likely to result in an indirect benefit being received without disclosing this fact to you.

 

We reserve the right to share commission with others at our discretion. Should we receive commission from another intermediary or the issuer of a security, we will inform you of payment but will only undertake to provide particulars of commission payable on request.

 

Fees

 

If we propose to charge a fee we will agree the amount with you in writing before we carry out any chargeable work.

 

Fees may become payable in the following circumstances (inter alia): - where the work we do for you does not relate to investments, which attract commission; where you instruct us to advise upon but not arrange the purchase of any investment product; where we arrange a loan on your behalf, domestic or commercial, a fee will be charged based on either an agreed hourly rate or a percentage of the loan advanced. Any commission received as a result of arranging an ancillary product will be offset against the fee; the arrangement of loans is not regulated under the Financial Services Act and THERE IS NO COMPENSATION SCHEME FOR THIS BUSINESS.

 

IF YOU SUBSEQUENTLY CEASE TO PAY PREMIUMS ON A POLICY and in consequence we are obliged to refund commission that has been paid to us, WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHARGE YOU A FEE based upon the number of hours spent advising you and arranging the policy. If we recommend to you any policy to which this paragraph applies, we will at the same time inform you in writing of the maximum amount of any such fee and the last time we would charge it.

 

 
Clients’ Money

 

WE ARE NOT AUTHORISED TO HANDLE CLIENTS’ MONEY. We do not accept cash or a cheque made out to us unless it is in relation to a fee or disbursement for which you have received an invoice.

 

Documents

 

All investments will be registered in your name unless otherwise agreed in writing. We will forward all contract notes and documents of title to you as soon as is practicable after we receive them; where a number of documents relating to a series of transactions is involved, we will normally hold each document until the series is complete and then forward them to you.

 

Records

 

We undertake to maintain records for at least six years and would like to inform you that you have the right to inspect copies of contract notes, vouchers or entries in our books and files relating to your transactions or any computerised records of the same.

 

It is your responsibility to keep Modern Money Financial Services Limited fully informed of your postal address and contact number/s. Also of any change of address or contact telephone number/s. 

 

Valuation of Policies

 

We will, on request from you in writing, produce a comprehensive valuation of your investments. This will not include pensions, although a pension valuation can be requested separately if required. Obviously, only investments that we are aware of will be included in the valuation. There will be no charge made for this service unless more than 4 valuations are requested each calendar year.

 

Conflicts of Interest

 

We offer independent financial advice, but occasions can arise where we, or one of our other customers, will have some form of interest in business, which we are transacting for you. If this happens or we become aware that our interest or those of one of our customers conflict with your interests, we will inform you and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions. 

 

Complaints Procedure

 

Modern Money Financial Services Limited is covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service, which has been set up by law to provide consumers with a free (to the client) independent service for resolving disputes with financial firms.

 

It is a requirement of Modern Money Financial Services Limited that we ensure an employee of sufficient competence, who is not directly involved with the matter of complaint deals with your complaint. Therefore, if you have a complaint about our services, you should first refer it to our Compliance Officer, who will try to resolve it.  As well as this copy of the Complaints Procedure they will supply you with a copy of a leaflet entitled ‘Your complaint and the Ombudsman’.

 

Modern Money Financial Services Limited must send you a written acknowledgement of your complaint within 5 days of its receipt, giving you the name and job title of the person handling the complaint within the firm.

 

Within four weeks of receiving your complaint you will be sent either

 

1.        A final response; or

 

2.        A holding response, which explains why we are not yet in a position to resolve the complaint and indicates when we will make further contact (this must be at least within eight weeks of the complaint).

 

By the end of eight weeks after the receipt of your complaint, we must have sent you either

 

1.        A final response; or

 

2.        A response that the we are still not in a position to make a final response, giving reasons for the further delay and indicating when we expect to be able to provide a final response; and

 

3.        Informing you that you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are dissatisfied with the delay and enclosing a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service’s explanatory leaflet.

 

Should you wish to complain to the ombudsman upon receipt of the final response you will need to do so within 6 months of receiving that final response.

 

We will endeavour on all occasions to deal with your complaint within the timescales shown above. The only time we foresee any delays will be when we require information from a third party; in these circumstances we will keep you informed at all times as to what is happening and when we feel we will be in a position to respond to you in full. This does not affect your right to take the complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman after the eight week deadline should you not feel satisfied with our reason for delay.

 

In the event that we receive a complaint that is not about us, or our services, and assuming that we can identify the firm to whom the complaint should be addressed, we will carry out the following action:

 

Ø       We will write to the firm concerned, explaining that we believe the complaint to be theirs, and suggesting that they contact you the client directly.

 

Ø       We will enclose a copy of the original complaint letter.

 

Ø       We will write to you the client, giving contact details of the firm, and invite you to get in touch. We will also enclose a copy of the letter we send to the firm.

 

Ø       We will copy the new firm in on this letter as well.

 

Professional Indemnity Insurance

 

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we are unable to meet our obligations. This will depend on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Most types of investment business are covered for 100% of the first £30,000 and 90% of the next £20,000, making the maximum compensation £48,000. Further information is available from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

 

We also advise on other financial products which are not regulated by the FSA under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not apply to any of these products.

 

 

Modern Money Financial Services Limited does carry Professional Indemnity Insurance as required by the FSA.

 

Your Consent

 

I have read the above terms and fully consent to the terms imposed and I authorise the transfer of information, on a confidential basis when warranted between any such third parties. I acknowledge that the Terms of Business Letter will come into effect from the date of issue. I also confirm that I am happy to give Modern Money Financial Services Limited my express consent to contact me by telephone or other means to discuss my financial affairs in future.

 

 

 

Signed  _______________________________________________                       Date ____________________

 

         

 

Name

 

National Insurance Number