Firm censured and agrees to pay extended warranty insurance customers £399,902

Please see below….

Final Notice April 2021 – alsford-page-and-gems-limited

Online

Friday 14th May 2021
12pm – 1pm

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- Elaine Craig 

- Dan McDwyer

Our Miindful Manchester Supporters group have been busy over the past months putting on events and sessions to promote Wellbeing.

It is Mental health Awareness week 10th-16th May 2021 and next on our agenda is a CPD with a difference. An event where we will focus on improving wellbeing with the power of singing.

Research has shown that singing can be good for you on many levels including helping enhance memory, improve mental health, help lower stress and  it can have behavioural benefits for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of Dementia.

Some of us may be suffering from Zoom fatigue, but this session may be just the tonic! Give your vocal chords a workout and experience it for yourself *

Some may think that it’s ‘not for me as I can’t sing’, but one of the best things about singing is that you don’t have to be good at it to reap the rewards, which you will hear about on the day!

This is also about the insurance community collaborating and doing something together which will be fun and memorable.

The objectives of this session:

• To understand how singing can help wellbeing and mental health.
• Hear from a choir member about her experience of being part of a choir and the benefits to setting up and workplace choir.
• Have some fun and experience it for yourself – exercise your vocal chords with Dan and learn the chorus of a song that his choir (Bee Vocal) sang at the Royal Variety performance

* It’s entirely up to attendees if they participate in the singing section but we encourage as many people to take part as possible.

If taking part check your surroundings are suitable, plus you will need to have your audio and a video camera activated for the session.

We are extremely delighted to have secured Dan McDwyer and Elaine Craig to join us for our event and they will inform and entertain us.

The FCA has doubled the size of its whistleblowing team and last week they launched a Whistleblowing campaign. See the link here  https://bit.ly/3d7tVSt.

This is your opportunity to learn more about the FCA’s Whistleblowing requirements and to make sure you have evidence that all staff know they can report serious concerns to the FCA. More importantly, do you really want your staff reporting you to the FCA?

You need to do four things.

1. Make sure your business has effective procedures to enable staff to raise concerns internally.
2. Make sure you know what is going on in your business, especially with home-workers.
3. Make sure you understand what the FCA expect you to do.
4. Make sure you understand the consequences of taking no action.

Book on this Booster session. The presenters are both ex FCA supervisory staff.

 The session is designed for General Insurance and Claims Management firms of all sizes.

 Attendance is a must for Senior Managers, Executive Board Directors, Non-Executive Directors, Risk / Compliance staff and any other staff with Operational responsibility.

Date: 21^st May 2021

Time: 10-11.00am

Cost: Just £69 plus vat per person

Delivery: Via Zoom

 Delegates will receive a certificate of attendance.

 To book contact: email Deborah@createsolutions.co.ukor phone 0161 870 6637

The FCA have recently issued a speech “Why diversity and inclusion are regulatory issues”  See https://www.fca.org.uk/news/speeches/why-diversity-and-inclusion-are-regulatory-issues

This is clearly one of the topics that is high on the FCA’s  agenda and links in with other areas they are focussing on such as improving firms culture and reducing misconduct. They have actually stated that they will be asking tough questions to firms on whether the  firms culture is open and inclusive in the future.

To help firms we are holding this FREE Bitesize session for our clients to help them update/refresh/take stock and look at if there is anything the firm needs to do  (no matter what the size of your organisation).

This session will cover:

• How does D & I fit into Equal Opportunities
• Why is D & I good for business
• Unconscious Bias
• Decision making and empowerment
• Next steps

Our guest speaker for this sessions is  Angela Pearson from Objective HR.

Who should attend:  Directors, Senior Managers, Compliance, Risk or HR/marketing and staff engagement role or anyone wanting to increase their knowledge and understanding of this important topic

Date:  14^th May 2021

Time: 10.00am (Duration 1 hour)

Delivery: Via Zoom (Details will be sent to you once you have booked your place)

Speakers:  Angela Pearson – Objective HR

To book: please contact Deborah@createsolutions.co.uk with the names of the delegates.

The session is limited to 3 people per firms  (However if you would like more contact us and we will look to see if we can accommodate you).

If you are unable to attend once you have booked please let us know in advance so we can give your place to someone else.

There is no charge for this session for Create Solutions clients. We are providing these in place of our face to face workshops, to help keep you updated on important regulatory topics.

Create Solutions are pleased to offer this one-hour FREE Bitesize session on what it really means to be a Senior Manager under SMCR. A lot has happened since the SMCR came into effect in December 2019. 16 months, a pandemic, and navigating a “new normal”. You have faced a lot of challenges and competing priorities. Against this backdrop, the FCA have reinforced their expectations of firms and what they expect from you.

It can be tough and lonely at the top.

This session is designed to help you understand your responsibilities, define your priorities, and discover tools that will help you plan and navigate risks.

At the end of this session, you will:

• Understand the individual duties, accountabilities, and responsibilities of being a Senior Manager (SMF)
• Understand the practical implications of these responsibilities
• Develop tools to demonstrate how you are personally complying
• Develop tools to engage and empower your teams under the SMCR
• Benefit from an update on the key FCA areas of supervision/activity

Date:                                     16^th April 2021

Time:                                     10-11am

Delivery:                              Via Zoom

Who should attend:

Senior Managers (SMF) and Compliance and HR leaders who support them in implementing and monitoring the effectiveness of the SMCR in your firm.

To book: please contact Deborah@createsolutions.co.uk with the names of the delegates.

The session is limited to 3 people per firms  (However if you would like more contact us and we will look to see if we can accommodate you).

If you are unable to attend once you have booked please let us know in advance so we can give your place to somebody else.

There is no charge for this session for Create Solutions clients. We are providing these in place of our face to face workshops, to help keep you updated on important regulatory topics.

Create Solutions are pleased to offer this 1 hour Booster session on the topic of Demands and Needs. As a compliance consultancy firm, we often come across a lack of understanding at many levels on what are Demands and Needs, and what they should contain.

If you are dealing with Commercial or Retail business, Advised or Non-Advised sales, or selling online, the customers’ Demands and Needs must be correctly identified and documented.

Your staff must also understand why this is important and the consequences of getting it wrong.

At the end of this session, delegates will:

• Understand the regulatory background to where the concept of Demands & Needs came from
• Build upon existing knowledge of both Non-Advised and Advised Sales, in particular the different types of information that can form a Demands & Needs Statement
• Gain an insight in the typical issues that Intermediaries face and the types of mistakes that lead to poor outcomes

The content will be:

• Regulatory Context & Origins
• Purpose of Demands & Needs
• Where & How
• Non-Advised Sales/Advised Sales
• Common Problems
• The consequences of getting it wrong

Date: 7^th May 2021  

Time: 2-3pm

Cost: Just £69 plus vat per person

Delivery: Via Zoom

Who should attend: This is ideal for those in a sales or customer service role, senior managers, team leaders and those with a risk, compliance, monitoring or audit role.

Delegates will receive a certificate of attendance.

To book contact: email Deborah@createsolutions.co.uk or phone 0161 870 6637

See link https://www.fca.org.uk/news/speeches/why-diversity-and-inclusion-are-regulatory-issues

Create Solutions will be holding a webinar for our clients on this topic on the 14^th May 2021  to help clients understand what they need to do.

Details will be available shortly…

FCA today launches pre-paid funeral plans consultation | FCA

What firms must do to prepare

All firms in this sector now need to consider how FCA regulation impacts their business and begin to make the necessary preparations.

Over the coming months, the FCA will be providing a range of help and guidance to assist firms in preparing applications and getting ready to be regulated by the FCA.

They will need to:

• apply directly to the FCA for authorisation from September 2021 or, if appropriate, submit notification to become an Appointed Representative
• apply as soon as possible after the application gateway opens in September 2021 – applications made after 1 November 2021 may incur a higher application fee
• ensure they meet our standards to be authorised and, once authorised, follow our rules
• pay an application fee and then annual fees, based on turnover

Those funeral plan providers that cannot meet the FCA’s standards, set out in this paper, or those which are not authorised before July 2022, are expected to cease trading in relation to funeral plans in an orderly way. This should take place before FCA regulation takes effect. Carrying on regulated business without authorisation after rules take effect is a criminal offence.

The FCA anticipates that the Funeral Planning Authority will continue to regulate providers of prepaid funeral plans registered with them, until FCA regulation begins in July 2022.

The FCA is asking for feedback on the draft rules and is asking for responses by 13 April 2021.

FCA issue guidance on Cancellations and refunds

https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/guidance-consultation/guidance-consultation-cancellations-refunds-helping-consumers-rights-routes-refunds.pdf