6th November 2017

Prudential: Vulnerable clients and the pension journey

Failure to consider the needs of vulnerable clients could clearly result in poor client outcomes and it also constitutes non-compliance with the FCAs principles, rules and expectations. Clare Moffat, Senior Technical Manager at Prudential explores.

Such is the importance attached to the issue of vulnerable clients, the FCA called it out as a priority in their 17/18 Business Plan - (Chapter 6, page 51 and throughout the document) in which they state "The overarching principle of fair treatment is important wherever consumers interact with financial services firms, and in particular when consumers are vulnerable. We want to see harm to consumers reduced".

The FCA then go onto detail some of the ways in which harm could be reduced; recognising when clients are or may become vulnerable and tailoring responses to deal with the situation, making products easier to understand and so on. It is important to recognise vulnerable clients but that might not always be as easy as you think. In addition, it is useful to think about the pensions journey and when a client might be vulnerable.

Read full article here

Pensions, Regulation