THE FCA IS CONCERNED THAT SOME COMMISSION STRUCTURES COULD LEAD TO POOR OUTCOMES.
Navigator: A tool to help you meet the FCA’ s expectations Navigator is designed to support advisers and firms in collating their MI and centralising their compliance tasks, so that they can concentrate on delivering quality advice. Navigator should help in managing business risks in line with FCA standards:
What this means to member firms
We would encourage firms to review their own business against the themes, effectively giving your firm a health check. The FCA’ s focus on distribution, commissions and customer outcomes shows where future regulation or supervisory work may come. Firms should ask themselves:
• Do our commission structures risk skewing advice?
• Do we have a clear process to check advice quality?
• Are we confident our advice leads to good customer outcomes?
• Can we demonstrate how we identify and protect customers with vulnerable characteristic?
Firms should ensure that all discretionary decisions receive proper Senior Manager oversight, require formal sign-offs for any deviations from standard commission structures, and regularly review MI to identify emerging patterns or risks that could impact advice quality or customer outcomes.
• Personalised dashboards for principals and advisers
• Integrated T & C and file reviews
• Clear sight of upcoming regulatory reporting tasks.
• Manage new business
• Monitoring plan with process and outcomes
The FCA’ s protection market survey is a clear signal of where the regulator’ s attention is going, ensuring customers receive suitable products through advice that puts their needs first, not commission. Whether or not you received the survey, taking steps now to review your commission structures, advice processes and oversight is the best way to protect your business and your clients.
The FCA are increasingly data led in their approach to regulation. The FCA expects firms to have a systematic approach to governance. Navigator provides this systematic approach, letting you manage compliance, risk, and advice quality centrally. As a firm, you can upload key dates such as return deadlines and internal process documents, and the system will automatically track them for you. With features like vulnerable customer data recording, integrated file reviews and centralised monitoring, Navigator helps firms deliver the clarity of MI the FCA wants to see, ultimately with the aim of reducing the risk of poor outcomes. Navigator is here to help, giving you the tools to manage risks and deliver advice that meets both your clients’ needs and the FCA’ s expectations.
As part of your membership, you’ ll receive five free licences. To request access or discuss your needs, please get in touch with us today.
| PROTECTION ADVISER | AUTUMN 2025 | 11