New figures from the Association of Professional Financial Advisers (APFA) reveal that advisers feel the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is at times failing to take their evidence into account when ruling on complaints and does not always explain the reasoning behind its decisions.
The research, carried out for APFA by NMG Consulting, reveals that just under one in five (18%) of advisers have had a complaint against their firm referred to FOS in the past three years. Of these, almost half (47%) say most cases were found in the firm’s favour, compared to a quarter (26%) saying most were found in the complainant’s favour.
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However, a third of these advisers (34%) also said that FOS’s ruling did not take account of their evidence in all cases and one in 12 (8%) said the reasoning for the decision was not always provided.
Chris Hannant, Director General at APFA, said: "While it is positive to see that only a small number of advisers have had complaints referred to FOS, it is worrying that advisers feel the Ombudsman does not value the evidence they provide.
"This issue may only be affecting a small number of advisers but it is nonetheless an important one. Advisers put a lot of time and effort into responding to complaints and presenting evidence to FOS and the Ombudsman should take this into account when ruling on cases. In addition, if advisers do not understand the reasoning behind FOS’s decision they cannot do anything to ensure similar issues do not arise in the future.
"If FOS is disregarding advisers’ evidence it needs to provide a valid reason for doing so, otherwise it must clearly demonstrate that the evidence has been considered and explain the reasons behind all its decisions. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep this issue front of the Ombudsman’s mind."
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By GlobalDataNMG’s research took place between 8-23 April 2014, with 216 financial advisers.
