Is your Financial advisor regulated AND fully qualified?

It has come to our attention in recent months that there are a number of Financial Advice companies advertising on the mainland, and in the Canaries, claiming to be fully qualified and regulated. Unfortunately, some of these companies have very limited permissions, or none at all in some cases.

In the first instance, you need to ensure that the company you are dealing with is regulated. This is extremely important and provides you with a level of protection. Equally important, however, is that the individual sitting in front of you, and providing the advice, is fully qualified.

To check to see if a company is regulated is fairly straightforward. On any advert or marketing material, an advice firm will always state their registration number as well information on where and who they are regulated by. Typically, the regulation will come from either the FSC in Gibraltar, the FCA in UK and either the DGS or the CNMV in Spain. Any advert without this information is likely to be from and unregulated entity.

You are also able to see if an adviser is qualified to UK standard, which many claim to be. To do this, you can go to the official CII (Chartered Insurance Institute) website, and click on member search. When searching for an individual, they should have the designation DipPFS next to their name, which means they have reached Diploma status. If they do not have this next to their name, they are not qualified to UK standard.

We are proud to work with two fully qualified advisers who both have both completed the Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning. We pride ourselves on delivering easily understood, tax efficient solutions for expats living in Spain. You are safe in the knowledge that the advice you are receiving is from fully qualified individuals and a fully regulated business.

We work with our advsisors who are a trading style of Tourbillon Limited, regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (Registered Number FSC1118B). Under our network, we are also registered with the FCA in UK and both the DGS and CNMV in Spain.