Financial advisers must be authorised by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) to advise you about specific financial products. They must be competent in their knowledge of the financial product that they are recommending to you and they must be skilled in the financial advice they provide. Above all, as the customer, they are required to always treat you fairly.

If you feel that a financial adviser is not living up to this code of conduct or is not competent you can report them. To do this:

1. Approach the financial adviser directly with an official letter of complaint.
2. They have an obligation to handle your complaint within a certain time frame.
3. If you are not satisfied with the response received you can refer the complaint to the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Ombudsman (a statutory institution that handles complaints made against financial advisers at no charge to you).

Contact the FAIS Ombud on:
Share-call: 086 066 (FAIS) 3247
Tel: 012 762 5000 / 012 470 9080
Email: info@faisombud.co.za
Website: www.faisombud.co.za

Please note that this information has been adapted from content originally developed by the Financial Intermediaries Association (FIA). We thank them for making this content available for our use.