Beginners' Guides
Firms that give financial advice have to be regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), or be the agent of a regulated firm.
The FSA has a Register of all regulated firms at www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/register/
. You should check the Register to make sure the firm you’re going to use is authorised to give financial advice.
If they aren't regulated and things go wrong, you won't have access to complaints procedures and compensation schemes, for example, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Helpful notesTo find a local IFA, you can use Unbiased's find an ifa service, run by IFA Promotion Ltd, the industry body responsible for promoting independent financial advice in the UK. Alternatively the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) also has a list of its members at www.biba.org.uk or you can search on www.mylocaladviser.co.uk
As part of the Lloyds TSB Group, Scottish Widows is proud to be an Official Provider of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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