Quilter has launched a new client communications guide to help financial advisers deliver messages to clients more effectively, as part of its Consumer Duty support.

Using behaviour science principles, Quilter has provided advisers with a framework to help comply with the Consumer Duty’s “consumer understanding” outcome.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introduced its new Consumer Duty measures on 31 July to improve the care afforded to customers of financial services firms across the industry.

Quilter is referring to its new framework as CLEAR, an acronym designed to make existing client communications more customer friendly. The acronym stands for “capture my attention, lighten the load, explain what it means for me, arrange the content simply, reassure me”.

For each element of the acronym, Quilter has provided advisers with behavioural science techniques they can use. The wealth management firm suggested this can help advisers meet the FCA’s expectations when it comes to supporting customers to make effective decisions.

Marketing director at Quilter, Jeremy Mugridge, said: “The FCA has set a clear expectation within its Consumer Duty about how providers should be supporting customers in their decision-making process. Client communications are critical to this and very easy to get wrong.

“As a result, we wanted to share a few simple and practical tips with advisers to not only get their communications working as the FCA would expect, but also working better for their business.

“Using behavioural science is a great way to remove some of the psychological barriers and harness the behavioural drivers that humans naturally have in order to promote better understanding.

“We have seen a great response in consumer testing on our communications as a result of the CLEAR principles. Not every principle of CLEAR has to be used every time, but it will provide advisers with a straightforward and easy to use framework for both regular and ad-hoc communications.”

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