MiFID II is a renewed focus by European regulators on strengthening investor protection for clients and improving market transparency. This legislation will come into force on 3 January 2018 across the whole of the EU. Whilst there are many changes taking place behind the scenes, here are the key matters that we would like to bring to your attention.
For clients of our Wealth Management division:
Changes to our Terms of Business
We will be making some updates to a number of documents, including our Terms of Business and we will be sending you a summary of those changes before the end of the year.
Reporting to you on costs and charges
As part of our commitment to being open and transparent, we have always reported to you the fees and charges levied on your portfolios as they are charged to each account. In order to ensure you know the full cost of investing we will additionally provide you with a report detailing all costs and charges that have been incurred, including any underlying fund charges for pooled or collective investments in the portfolio and their effect on returns, once per year.
Notifying you of falls in your portfolio value
Share prices on stock markets fluctuate continually throughout the day and this means the value of the shares that you hold in your portfolio also change. From time to time, the stock markets and the prices of individual stocks may fall and if this causes your portfolio to depreciate by 10% or more since the last reporting period, we will notify you within 24 hours. We aim to do this by email as this is the quickest way to ensure you are informed. If you have not already provided your Investment Manager with your email details, then please do so as soon as possible.
Recording telephone conversations and meetings
We are required to record all conversations we have with you relating to the advice we give and the receipt, transmission or execution of client orders. This means that we will be recording all telephone calls made from our offices or our Investment Managers’ mobile telephones. These recordings are for your benefit as they will help with resolving and errors or disputes. Where we visit you at home our Investment Managers and Advisers will be required to make detailed notes of the meeting and again this is a useful discipline to ensure we have taken note of all of your requirements.
Information about you
If you have not already provided us with your National Insurance number, or your national identity number if you are not a UK citizen, then your Investment Manager will be contacting you for this information. This is a specific requirement of the new regulation and we will be unable to transact business for you without this information.