Our Regulatory working group is closely involved in helping to shape Golden Charter’s approach to supporting us through Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulation.
Our group is focusing on making the process as straightforward and transparent as possible to allow us to continue to offer families funeral plans, with the added reassurance FCA regulation will bring to customers.
As it’s a busy time for our profession, we wanted to make sure our members are aware of what action we should now be taking to prepare for FCA regulation and the support available to us.
Apply
We can now submit our applications to Golden Charter to become an Appointed Representative or Introducer Appointed Representative once we have decided how we would like to continue to arrange funeral plans for families in our communities. We’re sure many of you will now be familiar with the terms Appointed Representative and Introducer Appointed Representative, but if not here’s a quick summary:
- Appointed Representative
An Appointed Representative is the option that most closely reflects the way the majority of us work with families just now. This allows us to guide families through the discussion from enquiry through to payment, providing our professional expertise at every stage.
- Introducer Appointed Representative
An Introducer Appointed Representative is limited to introducing Golden Charter plans to customers. If you choose this option, you will take only basic contact information, and pass it on to Golden Charter. Golden Charter will then discuss the details of the plan and conclude the transaction directly with the customer. You should note that the FCA doesn’t allow Introducer Appointed Representatives to discuss details of the funeral plan with families.
Support available
If you’re not sure what would be best for your business, your Golden Charter business manager is on hand to support and guide you. Once you have decided what option is best for you, your business manager will also help you with each stage of the application.
You can hear some of our members, Maria Stibbards, Simon Hall and Jim Auld, talking about why they’ve chosen to become Appointed Representatives in the Partnership Podcast regulation mini-series - https://www.saifcharter.co.uk/article/partnership-podcast-regulation-mini-series
Next steps
Once you have submitted your application, Golden Charter will share this with their specialist regulatory consultant UKGI. UKGI will carry out the FCA required due diligence checks and will be in touch directly if any additional information or documentation is required.
We hope that everyone feels they have the information they need at this stage in our regulatory journey, but please remember that our Executive and Regulatory Working Group members are always happy to speak to you if you want to chat through your options.