At Partners Wealth Management (PWM), we pride ourselves on excellent customer service. Our aim is to have a minimal number of complaints and a maximum number of satisfied clients. However, we do recognise that there could be times when our clients feel that we fall short of this aim. We view complaints as an opportunity for learning what we as an organisation can do to help our clients, setting their expectations and delivering to those expectations without error and in a friendly way. The rest of this document explains our process for handling complaints.
If you have a financial adviser, they will be able to raise a complaint on your behalf. Alternatively, you can contact us directly by phone: 020 7444 4030 or email: compliance@partnerswealthmanagement.co.uk. You can also write to the Compliance Department, Partners Wealth Management, 1 Angel Court, London EC2R 7HJ.
We aim to resolve all complaints in a timely and efficient manner. If your complaint is resolved to your satisfaction within three business days from receipt, we will send you a Summary Resolution Communication. Where we anticipate that the matter will take longer than 3 business days to resolve, we will send you an acknowledgement letter and a copy of our complaints procedure promptly upon receipt of your complaint. There may be some occasions when we will need to ask you or your adviser for more information, before the complaint investigation can proceed.
Your complaint will be investigated by a nominated complaint handler, who will be sufficiently impartial and unbiased. This will involve gathering all documents and information necessary for a clear picture of the chain of events to become evident.
We will provide you with a final decision on our findings within 8 weeks of receipt or, failing that, an explanation as to why we have not been able to do so and an indication of when you can expect a final response.
In our final response we will provide you with details of the Financial Ombudsman Service (see below) and either:
• Uphold the complaint and where appropriate offer redress or propose remedial action;
• Offer redress or propose remedial action without upholding the complaint; and/or
• Reject the complaint and explain the reasons for this.
The Financial Ombudsman will not generally review complaints which relate solely to investment performance. However, we are happy to explain the logic behind the choices that were made and the reasons for the subsequent performance.
Where your complaint relates to the administration or management of an occupational or personal pension, we may also be able to refer your complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) in addition to the FOS. Where appropriate, we’ll provide you with the relevant contact details.
Where we become reasonably satisfied that a third party may be solely or jointly responsible for the matter under investigation, we may forward the complaint, or the relevant part of it, to that third party. Where we decide that this is the most appropriate course of action, we will act promptly and will inform you of our actions accordingly.
If you are unhappy with the outcome of PWM’s investigation, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to review the matter. The Financial Ombudsman Service is there to help settle disputes between consumers and businesses providing financial services. Their contact details are:
Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR
Phone: 0300 123 9123
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
More information is also available on their website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
PWM wishes to be seen by our clients as to have understood their points and responded to them appropriately, without being defensive. All correspondence will be clear and written in plain English. We will include copies of relevant documentation with PWM’s response if we think this may help (e.g. text from a brochure or the website).
The person with responsibility for handling complaints at PWM is the Senior Compliance Manager. On a regular basis, the Compliance team will provide Management Information (MI) to senior management, and periodically conduct root cause analysis in order to identify common causes of complaints.
If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may be able to take civil action. However, we hope that you would discuss your concerns with us in the first instance.
For further information on how we can help you build and protect your wealth, please contact us.
