Dealing with Your Complaint

Our aim is to provide you, at all times, with a first class standard of service. However there may be occasions when you feel that this objective has not been achieved. Specialist Financial Services Limited takes all complaints seriously and will deal with your complaint in the following manner;

• We will acknowledge your complaint promptly following receipt, enclosing a copy of these procedures.
• If you make an oral complaint, our written acknowledgement will set out our understanding of your complaint.
• If we have reasonable grounds to be satisfied that another firm may be solely or jointly responsible for the allegation(s) made, we will promptly forward the complaint or the relevant part of it to that firm. We will write to you to confirm our actions and provide contact details of the firm concerned.
• Where we are able to resolve your complaint by the close of three business days following receipt, and this is to your satisfaction, we will issue a written summary of our findings and their conclusion. If having received this letter you remain dissatisfied, you may refer the issue to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) who can be contacted at: The Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR, Telephone 0800 0234 567. We will provide you with a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service leaflet; 'your complaint and the ombudsman'.
• The website address for the Financial Ombudsman Service if required is www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
• If your complaint cannot be resolved by the close of three business days following its receipt, we will ensure that you are regularly kept informed of our progress with regards to the investigation into your complaint.
• We will endeavour to send you our Final Decision Letter; addressing your concerns and providing you with our decision within 8 weeks or keep you informed of the progress of your complaint if not resolved before then.
• Where we are unable to provide you with our Final Decision Letter within 8 weeks, we will send you confirmation of this in writing along with an explanation as to why we have been unable to complete our investigations within this time scale. We will confirm when you can next expect contact from us.
• At this stage, you will be entitled to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service who can be contacted at: The Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR, Telephone 0800 0234 567. We will provide you with a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service leaflet; 'your complaint and the ombudsman'.
• The website address for the Financial Ombudsman Service if required is www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
• We will continue to investigate the complaint until we are able to send you our Final Decision Letter.
• If your complaint is upheld, we will provide you with fair compensation for any acts or omissions for which we are responsible.
• Once you have received our Final Decision Letter, if you are unhappy with our handling of your complaint; you can refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service at the address provided above. You must refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service within 6 months of the date of our Final Decision Letter. A copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service leaflet 'your complaint and the ombudsman' will be included with our Final Decision Letter.

We shall deem the matter closed when:

• We have resolved your complaint by close three business days from receipt to your satisfaction, and issued a written summary confirming the outcome of our investigation
• Our investigation has been completed and a Final Decision Letter has been sent to you, or;
• Where you have indicated, in writing, acceptance of any earlier response, where appropriate.