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Standard Life has denied its latest mailout to IFAs’ clients is an attempt to sell to them direct.
Advised individual Standard Life customers have been sent a request to update their details if any changes were necessary. The letter included a section to remove an intermediary's name if they no longer used that adviser.
Steven Hennessy, associate director at Myers Davison Ginger (MDG), raised concern the letter could encourage clients to mistakenly opt out of having an adviser.
"If a client sends this letter back without filling it in properly the adviser would be taken off Standard Life's books."
Customers who completed the forms were also entered into a prize draw.
Hennessy said when the firm asked its local Standard Life representative about the mailout, she did not have any knowledge of it.
He also expressed concerns that the prize draw would incentivise clients to change their adviser details in order to enter.
However, a Standard Life spokesperson denied the letters are an attempt to undermine IFAs, and said any customers could enter the draw whether their details had changed or not.
"Standard Life is fully committed to the IFA market and this is categorically not at an attempt to take clients away from IFAs," said the spokesperson.
"Under the FSA's TCF guidelines Standard Life's product provider responsibilities are to provide customers with clear information and to keep them appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale.
"Customers validating their details and making no changes are as equally eligible for the draw and a large number have responded on this basis and there is absolutely no incentive for customers to falsify information."
Standard Life also said all its members of staff had been informed about the mailout.
In October, Friends Life came under fire from IFAs when it sent out letters to clients asking them if they still had a relationship with their IFA.
The letter also offered clients advice service from its direct business, PlanWise. Friends Life said the purpose of the letters was only to gather data and round up orphaned clients.
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friends life as well
Friends Life have just done a similar thing, however no prize draw, and if tehyu client does not return teh letter the IFA stays on the records. We seem to be getting it in the neck from product providers, FSA, FSCS.... maybe I will become a dustman!!
Posted by: james
Ambushed
Who needs Friends like that; "round up orphan clients". Then we'll shoot them like rats in a barrel with our limited product range, limited "know your client" fullfillment and no meaningful relationship
Posted by: David
On the other hand....
In the run up to RDR, we are being increasingly told to contact our legacy clients and ask them if they wish to continue having thier policies linked to our agency. You could argue that Standard Life have done us a favour by contacting the clients directly. I brought this up with our SLife rep who advised us that it was only very old clients. This actually was not the case and a policy we had created was also removed due to this mailing. The promise of an Ipad 2 raffle prize was also included in the letter. It would have been nice is SLife had contacted us first with a list of clients they intended to contact and ask us if there were any clients we would not like them to contact. Although they have saved us the trouble of writing to these legacy (and probably not particularly profitable clients) it does leave a somewhat sour taste.
Posted by: Edward Scott
Ongoing service
If an IFA is providing a client with an ongoing service, what's the problem? If an IFA no longer bothers to service a client, what do they expect?
Posted by: Mark
Amazement
I am just amazed that so many IFAs are still using insurance companies. There is usually another way as equally beneficial to clients - apart from protection contracts. When I was an IFA I stopped using them in the mid-1980s for the same reasons.
Posted by: David Cowell, Myddleton Croft
Life offices poaching clients from IFAs
I stopped using insurance companies for general investment business about 10 years ago. It's only IHT planning and occasionally a pension where I might involve a life company - and, of course, protection. Friends Provident, as it was, had lots of previous 'form' on this matter and that was one of the reasons I started to avoid using life offices for investments.
Posted by: xxx
Aye right!
Standard Life is indeed as they say themselves committed to the IFA market. That is becuase withoit it they wouldn't have a business. For as long as I have been a broker/IFA I have seen this sort of attitude and behaviour from Standard Life. I would council any youg adviser who has a choice never to give Standard Life your clients. They will try to take them from you at each and every opportunity that occurs or that they sneakily make for themselves. RDR? my ****
Posted by: snooks
standard life arrogance
This company have a long history of treating IFAs like this and I would refer to back to their stance on pensions when they stopped their personal pension range, as they believed everyone should have a SIPP (then retracted this when companies such as Scottish Life started taking their share of business!!)I have personal experience of being refused entry to their Platform as I couldnt place £5 million of business on it in the first year, their rep has since gone into his shell. They are outsourcing their businees to India and developing a large direct sales force be aware, be very aware
Posted by: alan gemmill
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Typical Standard Life tactic
This is a blatant attempt to obtain one of 2 favourable outcomes for Standard Life. The first is a new client, and the second is the ability to turn off any trail paid to the adviser. I have asked Standard about this before, and they were unable to tell me whether any stopped trail would be retained by them or returned to clients. Perhaps they would care to answer that formally via this forum? I had a client who rang Standard Life over a trivial matter, and Standard asked "do you wish to involve your IFA with this?". The client saw no reason to (and I didn't need to be involved) and Standard removed our agency from ALL of the clients policies. When it came to light it turned out that the advice Standard gave the client was wrong, and the client was furious that we had been axed. Standard had to undo the changes they had made on the clients policy and re-instate us. It still took us to force them to listen to the tapes and provide a transcript to show how they had lead the client to removing us. Standard are right they have TCF responsibilities, but questioning a client about their IFA relationship on the phone or by mail is NOT one of them, and I am happy to debate this live with Standard Life in a video conference if they would like to.
Posted by: Mike Inkley