Lack of Co-operation from Providers
Sueh59
Member
Hi, has anyone else encountered a lack of co-operation when requesting information?
I have been attempting to obtain information from Scottish Widows regarding a client of one of my advisers. I needed to obtain projections and other information, which were given to me verbally. The projections were ordered and I was assured that they could be emailed directly to me even though my email is obviously different to the adviser. A week later I received a letter, via email, to say that they couldn't send me the projections because the letter of authority didn't show my company name. I phoned them to explain and clarify the situation. I was then told that not only could they not send the information directly to me - which I don't have a problem with at all - but that I couldn't even request that they send it to the adviser!! Now that's stupidity!!!!!
Just to compound the issue, I also requested the same information for another client, same adviser etc and that came to me directly on my email!?!?!
Is it me????
Comments please..........
Sueh
Comments
Where do I begin with providers!
The old life companies are possibly the worst for a whole host of reasons. Some do not even produce projections on a low, medium and high basis anymore. Others will consistently provide incorrect projections that we will know are incorrect (as we can use our own calculations to prove) but cannot argue with the actuaries as we are never allowed to speak to them.
St James' place are bad because they know it will usually end with the loss of assets for them (if the client is out of their initial charging period). They also take longer than average to respond to LOA requests and similar.
Banks are awful full stop; their offshore relatives even worse. They usually have no adviser phone line so you have to call the client line where they will refuse to speak to you. We've recently sent 3 LOAs for the same client, and had the client write direct to the bank, and each time the bank claimed to not have received them, 'so it must have gotten lost in the post'. Eventually we found out they had all 3 on file along with the client's request, and that they had been ignored. We spoke to a manager who apologised and 'promised' the information requested to be with us within 48 hours. That came and went, we chased again and were told 2 - 5 working days due to further information coming from a different department, and we are now reaching the end of the 5th working day with no information... All in all we have spent probably 4 or 5 hours on the phone to that one provider (I'm considering the options we have with the adviser on grounds for complaint). The first LOA was sent in December.
Even platforms can be a problem to deal with, if you are not considered one of their 'big accounts' or if you've complained to them in the past, as they also do not like to lose AUM.
And that is just but a few examples! The administration team I work with deal with these sorts of issues on an almost daily basis I would say. It has just become a part of normal admin/ paraplanner life.
Sue,
From your post I presume that the adviser works for one firm and you another - have I got that right?