Treating Customers Fairly

The standards of service you should expect

Treating our customers fairly has always been at the heart of how we do business. However, you may have read about the concept of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) in the financial press recently. It's not a new idea but our independent regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has put more focus on life companies and Financial Advisers demonstrating how they are treating customers in a fair way.

At Scottish Provident we believe TCF is relevant at every stage of your customer experience, and applies to both us, as a life company, and to your adviser.

So what does it mean for you, the customer? TCF aims to ensure that you are treated fairly at every stage of the sales process, and that:

• You can be confident that you are dealing with firms where the fair treatment of customers is central to the corporate culture.
• Products and services marketed and sold in the retail market are designed to meet the needs of identified consumer groups and are targeted accordingly.
• You are provided with clear information and are kept appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale.
• When you receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of your circumstances.
• You are provided with products that perform as firms lead you to expect, and the associated service is of an acceptable standard and as you have been led to expect.
• You do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms to change a product, switch provider, submit a claim or make a complaint.

To summarise this, our customer proposition is:

"To meet or exceed the standards of behaviour a properly informed and prudent customer is reasonably entitled to expect of an organisation committed to dealing with them honestly, openly, competently and with integrity; which has an informed understanding of their needs; and is committed to helping them get the most out of their relationship with us".