COBS 14.2 Providing product information to clients

A firm that sells, or (where relevant) gives effect to:

1. (1)

    a non-CCI packaged product to a retail client, must provide a key features document and a key features illustration to that client (unless the packaged product is a unit in a regulated collective investment scheme);

2. (2)

    a life policy to a client, must provide:

   1. (a)

       the Solvency II Directive information to that client;

   2. (b)

       a client with objective and relevant information about the policy:

      1. (i)

          in a comprehensible form to allow the client to make an informed decision;

      2. (ii)

          modulated in a way that takes into account the complexity of the policy and the type of client;

      3. (iii)

          whether or not the firm makes a personal recommendation or provides a ready-made suggestion to the client about the life policy; and

      4. (iv)

          irrespective of whether the policy is offered as part of a package pursuant to COBS 6.1ZA.16AR to COBS 6.1ZA.16ER;

   3. (c)

       the information in (b) must be provided prior to the conclusion of the life policy and in accordance with COBS 7.4, rather than in accordance with the other rules in this section;

3. (3)

    the variation of a life policy or personal pension scheme to a retail client, must provide that client with sufficient information about the variation for the client to be able to understand the consequences of the variation;

4. (3A)

    [deleted]

5. (3B)

    a retail client’s request to make income withdrawals from their personal pension scheme or stakeholder pension scheme for the first time must provide that retail client with:

   1. (a)

       a key features illustration; and

   2. (b)

       such other information as is necessary for the client to understand the consequences of the request;

6. (3C)

    a retail client's request to make one-off or regular uncrystallised funds pension lump sum payments from their personal pension scheme or stakeholder pension scheme for the first time must provide that client with:

   1. (a)

       a key features illustration; and

   2. (b)

       such other information as is necessary for the client to understand the consequences of the request;

7. (3D)

    a retail client’s request to designate personal pension scheme or stakeholder pension scheme funds to enable the retail client to make income withdrawals must provide that client with:

   1. (a)

       a key features illustration; and

   2. (b)

       such other information as is necessary for the retail client to understand the consequences of the request;

8. (3E)

    a retail client’s request to make an income withdrawal subsequent to (3B) or uncrystallised funds pension lump sum payment subsequent to (3C) must provide:

   1. (a)

       such information as is necessary for the client to understand the consequences of the request; and

   2. (b)

       where relevant, the information required by COBS 13 Annex 2.2.9R (Additional requirements: drawdown pensions and regular uncrystallised funds pension lump sum payments);

9. (3F)

    a retail client’s request for a short-term annuity must provide:

   1. (a)

       a key features illustration; and

   2. (b)

       such other information as is necessary for the client to understand the consequences of the request;

10. (4)

     a cash-deposit ISA, cash-only lifetime ISA or cash-deposit CTF to a retail client, must provide a key features document to that client;

11. (4A)

     a lifetime ISA, which is not a cash-only lifetime ISA, to a retail client must provide to that client the information in COBS 14 Annex 1; and

12. (5)

     [deleted]

13. (5A) [deleted]

14. (6)

     [deleted]

15. (7) [deleted]

16. (7A)

     a unit in an OFR recognised scheme to a client, must provide the documents and information specified in COBS 14.2.1-BR.

17. (8)

     [deleted]

For the purpose of COBS 14.2.1R(7A), in relation to a unit in a scheme which is an OFR recognised scheme, the specified documents and information are as follows:

1. (1)

    [deleted]

2. (2)

    Where the client is a retail client, the firm must provide separately (unless already provided):

   1. (a)

       the information required by COBS 13.3.1R(2)(a) and (b) (General requirements);

   2. (b)

       if the client is present in the United Kingdom, the information required by COBS 14.2.1R(5A)(b); and

   3. (c)

       information that clearly explains:

      1. (i)

          whether the Financial Ombudsman Service is likely to be able to consider complaints against the scheme, its operator or its depositary; and

      2. (ii)

          what arrangements, if any, exist that would enable investors in the United Kingdom to have a complaint against the scheme, its operator or its depositary considered by an alternative dispute resolution mechanism in the relevant Home State;

      3. (iii)

          that the activities of the scheme's operator and its depositary are unlikely to be covered by the compensation scheme and investors might not be protected under the regulatory system if either person should become unable to meet its liabilities to them; and

      4. (iv)

          what arrangements, if any, exist in the Home State(s) of the scheme’s operator or its depositary for the payment of compensation to investors in the United Kingdom if either person should become unable to meet its liabilities to them.

When the rules in this chapter require the offer or provision of a key features illustration, a firm may provide a generic key features illustration if that generic key features illustration has been prepared in accordance with COBS 13.4.2 R.

A firm that arranges to facilitate the payment of an adviser charge or consultancy charge, or an increase in such a charge from an in-force packaged product, must provide to the retail client sufficient information for the retail client to be able to understand the likely effect of that facilitation.

The documents or information required to be provided or offered by COBS 14.2.1 R and COBS 14.2.1C R must be in a durable medium or made available on a website (where that does not constitute a durable medium) that meets the website conditions.

1. (1)

   A firm that personally recommends that a retail client holds a particular asset in a SIPP must provide that client with sufficient information for the client to be able to make an informed decision about whether to buy or invest.

2. (2)

   This rule does not apply if the asset is described in COBS 14.2.1 R.

When a firm provides a document or information in accordance with the rules in this section, it must not do anything that might reasonably cause a retail client to be mistaken about the identity of the firm that has produced, or will produce, the product.

A firm is not required to provide:

1. (1)

    a document, if the firm produces the product and the rules in this section require another firm to provide the document;

2. (2)

    [deleted]

3. (3)

    [deleted]

4. (4)

    [deleted]

A firm is not required to provide a key features illustration for a product if the information that would have been included in that illustration is included in the key features document provided to the client.

A firm is not required to provide a key features illustration in relation to a pension annuity if the firm provides the information required by COBS 19.9 (Pension annuity comparison information).

A firm is not required to provide a key features document or a key features illustration for:

1. (1)

   [deleted]

2. (2)

   a life policy if:

   1. (a)

      [deleted]

   2. (b)

      the client is habitually resident outside the United Kingdom and the sale is not by distance contract.

3. (3)

   a traded life policy; or

4. (4)

   an interest in an investment trust savings scheme.

A firm is not required to provide a key features document or a key features illustration, if:

1. (1) the client is buying or investing in response to a direct offer financial promotion without receiving a personal recommendation or a ready-made suggestion to buy or invest; and
2. (2) the firm provides materially the same information in some other way.

A firm is not required to provide a key features document or a key features illustration if:

1. (1)

   the client is habitually resident outside the United Kingdom and not present in the United Kingdom when the relevant application is signed; or

2. (2)

   the purchase is by a discretionary investment manager on behalf of a retail client; or

3. (3)

   the sale is arranged or personally recommended by an investment manager and the client has agreed that a key features document is not required.

4. (4)

   [deleted]

In the case of a distance contract comprising an initial service agreement, followed by successive operations or a series of separate operations of the same nature performed over time, the rules in this section only apply to the initial agreement.

If there is no initial service agreement but the successive operations or separate operations of the same nature performed over time are performed between the same contractual parties, the rules in this section only apply:

1. (1)

   when the first operation is performed; and

2. (2)

   if no operation of the same nature is performed for more than a year, when the next operation is performed (the next operation being deemed to be the first in a new series of operations).

When the rules in this section require a firm to:

1. (1)

    [deleted]

2. (2)

    provide a key features document or any other document or information to a client, the document or information must be provided free of charge and in good time before the firm carries on the relevant business.

3. (3)

    [deleted]

A key features document for an HMRC allocated CTF must be provided as soon as reasonably possible after the CTF has been opened.

1. (1) A firm may provide a document, or the information required to be provided by the rules in this section, in a durable medium immediately after the conclusion of a distance contract, if the contract has been concluded at a client's request using a means of distance communication that does not enable the document or information to be provided in that form in good time before the client is bound by the contract.
2. (2) [deleted]

1. (1)

    Where the rules in this section require a document or information to be provided, in the case of a voice telephony communication, a firm must:

   1. (a)

       if the client gives explicit consent to receiving only limited information, provide the abbreviated distance marketing disclosure information () orally to the client;

   2. (b)

       if the client does not give explicit consent to only receiving limited information, and the parties wish to proceed by voice telephony communication, provide the distance marketing information () orally to the client;

   3. (c)

       in the case of (a) or (b), send the documents or information to the client in a durable medium immediately after the contract is concluded.

2. (2) [deleted]