Defaqto, one of the UK’s most trusted sources of financial product and market intelligence, has launched a pilot of its new independent Consumer Duty Profiles for selected product providers in the Personal Pension, SIPP and Adviser Platform space.
Supplementing the profiles already published from the top 20 recommended discretionary MPS, these product profiles are designed to help advisers meet their regulatory needs as part of Consumer Duty. The Profiles are now available in Defaqto Engage and Centra, software used by over 30% of UK financial advisers.
Announced earlier this year, Consumer Duty Profiles form part of Defaqto’s ongoing commitment to assisting advisers to make smarter financial decisions in an ever-increasing regulatory environment.
The initial providers include abrdn; AJ Bell; Aviva; Curtis Banks; Fidelity Adviser Solutions; LV=; Prudential; Quilter; Scottish Widows; Standard Life; Wealthtime and XPS Self Invested Pensions across the three product areas. They provide completely independent and unbiased profiling of these providers’ propositions.
Consumer Duty Profiles enable advisers to compare products, funds, or DFM portfolios in a peer group on the same basis using the same data. The documents, will enable advisers to report on the target market of the product in question, and importantly, understand who is not the target market. The profiles will also make understanding whether a product offers fair value, or assessment of the value of a product, much easier by providing an average or ‘most common’ benchmark for a particular feature in the product’s peer group. The profiles were designed in consultation with both providers and advisers in these spaces to ensure they are of the most use to Engage and Centra users.
Paul Tinkler, Head of Insight at Defaqto, said: “These newly launched Profiles will provide enhanced due diligence for an Adviser, and complement the documents available from providers.
“Defaqto is the market leader in product research, with over 40 personal pensions; 100 SIPPs and over 30 advised platforms on Engage and Centra.
“Each of our Consumer Duty Profiles is structured around the four key outcomes the FCA set out in the rules and guidance: namely ‘products and services’, ‘price and value’, ‘consumer understanding’ and ‘consumer support’. Where the data can be clearly compared to other propositions, we have calculated the average for numeric values, and ‘most common’ or mode for non-numeric values within Defaqto Engage. This clearly shows whether a product is in line with its peers in the market, allowing an adviser to easily tell if a product offers fair value, complementing a provider’s own statement.”
