“The consumer duty cross cutting rules are fundamentally about risk management and the lack of holistic joined up care advice can significantly increase the risks of non compliance with the cross cutting rules.
"My Care Hub has been designed to essentially avoid those potential foreseeable harms for consumers and de-risk a financial advice firm's business.
“One of the key features of the hub is it can provide regular management information to the advice firm so they can see which clients have signed up, what their activity is and what their outcomes are from using the hub. The firm can then evidence that and log that against their consumer duty requirements.”
Adviser engagement
Berry believed there would be positive engagement amongst advisers with the platform because all advisers will have clients who care for family members or need care themselves.
“We have got an expression of interest list which has crept up to nearly 500 firms in size, who have said, we want to be told when this launches and we want to be given the first opportunity to sign up," she said.
“This is because what sits in the background of this resource is real people in my team ready to provide a dedicated email and telephone support service to users of My Care Hub, many of whom will get what they need from the guided information, but some might want to submit questions about their situation or want support using the site while others might want to book a one-to-one consultation with the team which is chargeable."
Berry said My Care Hub will give advisers the opportunity to run an automated care referral system.
Berry said the resource was also “perfectly placed” to help firms develop their relationships with professional connections and corporate clients.
She said: “This is really our solution in response to the regulator's calling for firms to essentially have a service that taps into the consumer duty and vulnerability regulations.
“The feedback from firms is most, unless you're a care advice specialist, don't understand this area. They don't necessarily have the time or the expertise to deliver a service in house. And for me this is about de-risking a business and this could really change the face of the nature of advice across the UK.
“Creating more of a holistic feel across the whole of retirement advice that doesn't just look at cash flow planning in retirement but also factors in the very likely need of care in later life and what that looks like and actually building that into the cash flow plan.”
Berry added that the changing nature of advice is at a tipping point and My Care Hub will allow advisers to have a more holistic approach.
