Firms who advise on life assurance, pensions, or unit trust products are EITHER
independent advisers OR representatives of one company. CONTRACTOR
FINANCIALS LTD IS INDEPENDENT and will act on your behalf
in advising you on life assurance, pensions or unit trust products. As we are
Independent, we can advise you on the products of different companies.
Services
Contractor Financials Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services
Authority (FSA) to advise on and arrange Life Assurance, Pensions, Collective
Investments, Personal Equity Plans, Individual Saving Accounts and Financial
Planning. We are bound by the rules of the FSA.
With regard to investments we have arranged for you, these will not be kept
under review unless we have been specifically asked to do so by you. However,
we may contact you in the future by means of an unsolicited promotion should we
wish to contact you to discuss the relative merits of an investment or service,
which we feel, may be of interest to you.
We are authorised to offer advice in arranging deals in investments, making
arrangement with a view to transactions in investments, advising on investments
(except on Pension transfers and opt-outs), agreeing to carry on a Regulated
Activity.
Advice
We propose to classify you as a Private Customer. 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.
We will obtain certain facts about your personal and financial circumstances
including investment objectives and attitude to risk ensuring that any
recommendations meets 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. Details of your
stated investment objectives will be included in the suitability letter we will
issue to you to confirm our recommendation. Unless confirmed in writing, to the
contrary, we will assume that you do not wish to place any restrictions on the
advice we give you.
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.
Clients’ Money
We do not handle client’s money. We never accept a cheque made out to us
(unless it is a cheque in settlement of charges or disbursements for which we
have sent you an invoice) or handle cash.
Charges
We derive income from commission paid to us in respect of transactions in Life
Assurance, PEP/ISA, Unit Trusts and other Regulated Collective Investment
Schemes and in Investment Trust Companies’ shares held in a PEP/ISA or regular
savings scheme. We shall tell you the amount and the frequency of commission
payable to us on any such investment. If we receive commission or other form of
benefit from the issuer of a security or from another intermediary, we will
inform you but we will not tell you its amount unless you ask us to do so. We
reserve the right to share any commission or fees received by us with other
introducing agents.
Alternatively, if you or we propose to operate on a fee basis, we will agree
its basis, frequency and method with you in writing before we carry out any
chargeable work. Should we receive commission from any third party in relation
to transactions arranged for you, we will offset the amount received against
any fees due.
Documents
Unless in exceptional circumstances, we will confirm to you in writing the
basis or our reason for recommending the transaction executed on your behalf.
We will also make arrangements for all your investments to be registered in
your name unless you first instruct us otherwise in writing. We will forward to
you all documents showing ownership of your investments as soon as 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. You will be advised at the point of
sale where a right to withdraw applies and the relevant circumstances.
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.
Money Laundering
Where we are required to verify your identity in accordance with the Criminal
Justice Act 1993 and Money Laundering Regulations, no investment will be made
until such verification has been obtained.
Disclosure of Client’s Personal Data
Where investment business services are provided to the firm by third parties
then circumstances may arise which warrant the disclosure of more than just
your basic contact details. On these occasions such as processing business, and
obtaining compliance and regulatory advice you agree that personal information
held by the firm may be disclosed on a confidential basis, and in accordance
with the Data Protection Act 1998, to such third parties. You agree that this
information may be transferred electronically, e.g. e-mail. You also agree that
any such third party or ourselves may contact you in future by any means of
communication that we consider appropriate at the time.
Termination of the Agreement
You or we may terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time without
penalty. Notice of this termination must be given in writing. The termination
will be without prejudice to the completion of transactions already initiated,
if this is the case.
Complaints
Making a Complaint
If you should have any complaint about the advice you receive or a product that
you have bought please write to the Compliance Officer at Contractor Financials
Ltd, Greyhound House, 23-24 George Street, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1HY. Telephone
0845 062 8888. If you feel that your complaint has not been sufficiently
handled you may subsequently complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service, South
Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR, Tel: 0207 676 1000.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
If you make a valid claim against the firm in respect of the investments we
arrange for you and we are unable to meet our liabilities in full, you may be
entitled to redress from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Details of
the cover provided by the scheme are given in a leaflet, which we will send you
at your request. Further information is available from the Financial Services
Authority and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
We maintain Professional Indemnity Insurance to the value required by the
Financial Services Authority.