Are you confident your file notes would protect you if your advice was ever disputed by a client?
- Yes (54%)
- Not sure (33%)
- No (13%)
Loading ...A small majority of advisers, it seems, are confident their files notes would protect them if their advice was ever disputed by a client, but a sizable number are not so sure.
As we go to press just over half (55%) of advisers say their file notes are good enough to protect them in a dispute with a client but a notable 38% are not sure their file notes would be up to scratch.
Another 7% state a bald “no”.
Our latest poll arose following our story on a recent FSCL case study, highlighting why proper record keeping is essential for advisers to avoid ‘he said, she said’ disputes.
In this particular case to settle the complaint, the adviser offered to refund his client half of the IP premiums she had paid since 2011 (see: Client Dispute – Adviser Refunds IP Premiums).
FSCL explains the client made a complaint against her financial adviser in 2024, saying that he did not cancel her IP policy even though he knew that she had become a stay-at-home parent and had been unemployed since 2011.
The dispute resolution service’s case study notes that in cases where there are no file notes “…it is one person’s word against another’s, we are likely to give more weight to the client’s memory of events because they may remember a particular situation better than the adviser, who deals with many clients.”
The adviser did not have any records to support his version of events, which made it a ‘he said, she said’ situation,” says FSCL, “something that is really hard to resolve without proper documentation.”
Our poll is open for another week and we’d value your thoughts…