FSCS: consumers must ask more questions
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has launched a campaign to encourage more savers to ask financial advisers and providers more questions about how their money is protected.
It wants consumers to ask financial advisers and providers about what will happen to their money in the event of a business failure or major problem.
The campaign is called Understanding FSCS Protection.
The compensation body, which has been criticised in recent times for its rapidly increasing levy as compensation bills have soared, says it wants to help consumers, when they are considering financial products or services, to ask the right questions about protections in place for their money.
There is evidence in recent cases, such as the LCF mini-bond scandal, that consumers were not aware whether their investments were protected by the FSCS or other bodies.
The FSCS says it wants consumers to ask advisers and providers to answer a number of key protection questions before handing over their cash.
On investments, for example, the questions include: “Is this investment product covered by the FSCS?” “How much of my money is protected?” and “What would happen to my money if something happened to your business?”
More details are on a new webpage https://www.fscs.org.uk/questions/ which has question cards for different sectors.
There is also a video on ‘Understanding FSCS Protection’ at https://twitter.com/i/status/1306558356933533699.