FTAdviser reader Simon Mansell writes to the editor in relation to the story 'Prepare for Fos to chase you after retirement'.
I would like to express surprise and alarm at the prospect of “any” regulated adviser trading other than as a limited liability company or a limited liability partnership.
As a sole trader or partnership operating as a regulated adviser you are literally an “outlaw” operating outside the normal protections of the English legal system.
There is:
- No statute of limitation
- No rights of appeal
- No access to the courts
- No recourse to the rules of evidence
- No adjudication by a judge in a court of law.
Advisers are and have been subjected to retrospective application of today’s rules applied yesterday. Following the rules today does not protect you tomorrow.
Your personal liability is unlimited, with the regulator taking priority ahead of your family. Go home tonight and explain that to your wife, husband, or partner what you read here.
Network members mistakenly feel protected. Not so!
Their PII contains a “right of subrogation”.
If a complaint is made it subsequently allows a claim payment to be made by the indemnity insurer to the network, who is the PI owner (not the member) but then subsequently allows the PI insurer to seek redress via a third party.
The network member is that third party. So, you don’t even have the protection you are paying for.
Simon Mansell is managing director at Temple Bar IFA
