SimplyBiz launches Vulnerable Clients Week

The campaign will deliver information and insight on a breadth of areas including updates on regulatory activity around vulnerable persons, implications of the Consumer Duty, approaching awkward conversations with clients, the role of developing tech in identifying vulnerability, working with those who become vulnerable in later life, supporting changing mental health needs, and more.

In addition to contributions from specialists within its own team, SimplyBiz has also collaborated with firms including the Financial Vulnerability Taskforce, Just, Comentis, Crystal Specialist Finance and The Exeter to deliver its Vulnerable Clients Week material, through a range of media.

Janice Laing, managing director of Compliance First and lead of SimplyBiz’s work on vulnerable clients, commented: “Ensuring that people with vulnerable characteristics received the right support from the financial services sector was a growing area of interest for both advisers and the regulator even before the arrival of Covid-19. The strains of the pandemic upon mental, physical and financial wellbeing have been severe in some cases, and we know that our members are eager to ensure that they are able to identify vulnerable characteristics in clients, have open and compassionate conversations, and support individual clients in finding the best outcome.

“Our Vulnerable Clients Week provides a broad range of material in several different formats, with a real focus on delivering examples of what’s worked well for other firms, and practical guidance, as well as helping advisers to understand the regulator’s position. We believe that supporting vulnerable people is an industry-wide issue and are therefore also making much of the material available to non-members through our website.”

Tony Miles, Secretariat of the Financial Vulnerability Taskforce, added: “It’s important that advice firms continue to develop, monitor and regularly review their actions in respect of how they identify and deal with clients in vulnerable circumstances, so the Financial Vulnerability Taskforce is delighted to support the inaugural SimplyBiz ‘Vulnerable Clients Week’.”

Jonathan Barrett, CEO and Co-Founder at Comentis, added: “We are delighted to support Vulnerable Clients Week. With the FCA estimating that one in two adults could be at risk of financial vulnerability, and Robert Sinclair of AMI estimating that around 90% of people considering lifetime mortgages or later life lending could be vulnerable, the chances are that most advisers have already assisted such a client. We know that financial vulnerability can be hard to identify beyond physical health and life-event triggers, putting undue pressure on advisers not trained to identify what are often mental health conditions. Raising awareness around vulnerability in this space is more important than ever. We hope this week can help support advisers with the practical information they need and give them the tools they require.”