Consumer Duty

What is the Consumer Duty?

The Consumer Duty’s overarching Principle requires firms to act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. Three cross cutting rules, providing greater clarity on FCA expectations here, require firms to:

• Act in good faith towards retail customers
• Avoid foreseeable harm
• Enable and support retail customers to pursue their financial objectives

What outcomes does the FCA want to see?

Under the Consumer Duty, the FCA has highlighted four outcomes to help drive good outcomes. They relate to:

• Products and services
• Price and value
• Consumer understanding
• Consumer support

How Dynamic Planner supports Consumer Duty principles

For 20 years, Dynamic Planner has been focused on the client outcome, not the product search.

In an advice firm’s hands, it fundamentally enables clients to achieve their financial objectives. Post-2018, it has been rebuilt to meet MiFID II and PROD, with one vision of a client being happy at every review. It naturally aligns to the requirements of Consumer Duty.

It is a complete financial planning system. Within it, you can confidently match an investment solution to a client, or a group of clients, all from one hub. The audit trail it evidences is also complete.

How Dynamic Planner helps deliver the Consumer Duty’s four outcomes

1) The governance of products and your services

Dynamic Planner is designed so that a firm can only perform a function for either an individual client or for a defined target market of clients. Within Dynamic Planner, you can confidently match an investment solution to a client or target market without leaving the system, leaving a complete, evidenced audit trail.

Client-focused product features, alongside the advantages and disadvantages, enable the same language to be used in your product governance and your suitability disclosure. Meantime, the connection from the consumer needs, to the manufacturer, product governance and the advice process is seamless, and consistent with a circular audit trail.

2) Price and value

Categorising solutions by risk and preference enables you and a client to properly identify fair value among suitable investment solutions of comparable nature, quality and benefits. Objective standards and benchmarks enable price and value to be calculated and demonstrated.

Also, the Dynamic Planner experience and output is itself of value to your client. It elevates the value your firm provides, and value that is often missed. Dynamic Planner’s efficient processes increase the time you can spend on client engagement and understanding. In brief, what you do best, enjoy the most, and what your clients arguably value most.

3) Consumer understanding

Dynamic Planner increases the focus on your firm’s clients, ensuring that they understand communications that they receive from you. The overall quality of communications that Dynamic Planner enables firms to produce means that your client is more likely to engage with, receive and remember the advice.

Within communications, a client’s story flows from start to finish, without the need to switch documents, applications or terminology. In support, Dynamic Planner’s behavioural science team conduct original academic research to ensure key analysis in the system is understood, while Dynamic Planner’s risk profile descriptions are approved by the Plain English Campaign.

4) Consumer support

Dynamic Planner enables efficiencies in the financial planning process and supports your client in making effective, timely and informed decisions.

Investment solutions, communications and services are matched to target markets of clients or individual clients, so that you can anticipate future challenges they may meet and mitigate them with the right solution. Moreover, Dynamic Planner’s methodologies are backed by supporting material from experts.