17th December 2008

Jane's role

My name is Jane Sanders, I am a barrister in training and I left FOS in January 2008, after 16 months of life as a hallowed 'adjudicator'. All of you in financial services are no doubt more familiar with FOS's horror stories than I. Well, I thought the learning curve whilst at FOS was steep; whew! in the 9 months since being on the 'other side of the fence' I have been regaled with enough stories about client IFAs experiences on the receiving end of the FSA's regime to make my hair curl, and which would have seen lesser mortals running for the hills.

However, and it is a big however, you IFAs are apparently made of tougher stuff, and you just keep going and going - a bit like Duracell bunnies, no doubt much to the chagrin of the 'powers that be' that appear to be trying to create a financial arena “sans” IFAs. Why? Well my jury's still out on that; stick with me and I'll let you know when I find out.

What is my role at Panacea, you ask? Well, one of the main reasons IFAs get short shrift with regulatory bodies are, of course, because they are 'independent'. What does that mean? Well it means that many of you are labouring under the misconception that you have to do everything alone. I am here to tell you that this is not the case. There are many sources of information at your disposal - but - and this is the problem, just as with the law - you can only access it if you know where to look. Hopefully, Panacea and word of mouth - on the basis that like the legal community the financial services community in respect of IFAs is actually quite small - will remedy this. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! This is why I embarked on a career in law. As such I intend to put information at your disposal with which you can defend yourselves including the fact that:

• Ombudsmen are ordinary men and women - so beware - and FOS is fallible - no statutory body that was nothing until it was given power by a piece of legislation will, forever more, get away with living by standards such as 'we do not pretend to find the law; we unashamedly make new law'!
• Until there is some type of regulatory reform - and I do believe it will happen - Panacea can put you in touch with people who can help you best defend yourself within the system and, more often than not, win!
• Emotion, when dealing with FOS, is your worst enemy. In one respect, the DISP rules were quite correct in stating that someone other than the person involved with the 'alleged' act or omission that led to a complaint should deal with that complaint. Why? Because, as 'ordinary individuals' without any 'real' training as specialists in dispute resolution, if “FOS  ites” get just a whiff of emotion in your argument, which of course is absolutely justified in complaints which are artificial at best and blatantly 'manufactured' at worst, it will be seized upon and you will be sunk. As IFAs you must resign yourself to the fact that you are lumped in with big businesses that have legal teams at their disposal, who can interpret the plethora of rules and regulations that is the Financial Services Industry, and any mistakes can be huge.

This last point, ladies and gentlemen, is where people such as myself come in. I am here to tell you that compliance need not be corporate focused - with little interaction from providers. You can have the support that you, the people doing the business feel you need - and at reasonable costs. I am not confined to 9-5 hours - largely because as a new business, I would be mad to do so, but also because many of my clients do not keep such hours. A bit pointless to have a consultant who can only be contacted during certain times, particularly when you have an emergency and when your hours are much different. As such, I try to ensure that I am always available by some medium.

With many IFAs becoming so very disgruntled with the industry that they are forking out tens of thousands of pounds to take the matters to the courts, I personally feel it imperative that I finish my legal training, so as to be able to represent my IFA clients - at reasonable costs - in court, as well as in all other forums. Having seen what all of you experience on a daily basis with FOS and having worked for them, I am ideally placed to tell you how their decisions are made, what particular comments in views mean and how you can best defend yourself. Also, and whether this is a failing or not, I do tell it as it is! If you have a case that is going to lose, I owe you an obligation to tell you. 

Furthermore, I want to teach you to how to 'see' these problems for yourself, so you can manage your own in-house compliance more efficiently, and have less use for me.  

The beauty of being involved with Panacea is that not only can you access for free all the sources of information that it provides, but you can also access one another - this then allows one voice to become many, which will give all of you IFAs real clout! For my part, I am privileged to be involved. Never having considered that I would act for the defence, I now find myself actively campaigning in every field imaginable to raise the profile for IFAs and to ameliorate their conditions. Not at all the way that I saw my career progressing, but now I'm there, I love it!

In closing, I would like you all to ask me via the forum as many questions as you wish, about FOS related matters in regard to compliance, PI insurance or any commercial matters, a response to which will help all of your colleagues. Or, tell me what has happened to you! I'm interested and it is only if you all speak out, that something can be done. My team and I will be able to syphon the questions, and track any trends that the lines of questioning reveal. My relationship with the lovely Nicole Blackmore of Money Marketing will hopefully ensure that any really major issues that you all have get the attention in the papers that they need, giving much needed positive profile to IFAs. And of course, this really is a perfect example of many voices collaborating to get something done. Only then can all of you reach a position where your say will count!

Adieu for now and I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

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