fined Charles Palmer, high-profile director of IFA network and compliance consultancy Financial Ltd, £49,000 over pension switching failings.

fined Charles Palmer, high-profile director of IFA network and compliance consultancy Financial Ltd, £49,000 over pension switching failings.
The FSA has ordered the Gloucestershire-based network to review its pension switching cases and compensate clients where they received unsuitable advice.
The regulator initially found shortcomings with the management of the fee-based network, and its monitoring of advisers then uncovered problems with the quality of pension switching advice between April 2006 and August 2008. Financial Ltd told the FSA during its investigation: ‘We have a laid back approach to compliance: all members are experienced IFAs.'
Financial Ltd is the second firm to be punished by the FSA over pension switching advice, according to Margaret Cole, FSA director of enforcement and financial crime. ‘As the director of the firm, Palmer (pictured) was personally accountable for failing to take the steps needed to manage the risk of advisers giving potentially unsuitable advice during a period when the IFA network was expanding so rapidly,' she said.
The FSA said Palmer failed to establish an effective system for monitoring his advisers and did not ensure pension switching advice was demonstrably suitable. The FSA found in its review of 101 pension switching cases at Financial Ltd only 25 files were assessed as suitable.
Palmer also did not recruit enough compliance staff to cope with the rapid expansion of the network. The FSA noted the ratio of appointed representatives to staff ballooned to 4:1 in 2008 from 1:1 in 2003.
The FSA was also critical of the training offered by Financial Ltd to new advisers. A daily e-maill quiz was a core part of the training for new advisers along with seminars, but these were not compulsory. 'You did not ensure that the firm was properly organised to assess the level of engagement of its members or proactively manage training and competence requirements and gaps across the network,' stated the FSA.
Network and compliance consultancy Financial Ltd has been in business for 15 years and had 168 appointed representatives and 233 registered individuals in 2008. Financial Ltd and Palmer may be better known for their marketing arm IFAtv, which included interviews with Jon Maguire of Cru Investment Management plugging his troubled Africa Invest fund.