2022-03-22 GDD

Who are we?
We are a firm of financial advisers based in South Wales. We started in 2004 and serve
customers across the UK.
We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct
Authority (FCA). You can check our registration at
https://register.fca.org.uk/ under the Firms Register
Number: 402291.
We are directly regulated by FCA Financial advice firms can be regulated directly by the
FCA, or an appointed representative of another directly regulated firm.
We are independent. Financial advisers as either ‘independent’, or ‘restricted’. FCA rules set
out that a firm describing itself as independent must:
'assess a sufficient range of relevant products available on the market which must be
sufficiently diverse with regard to their type; and issuers or product providers, to ensure that
the client’s investment objectives can be suitably met; and not be limited to relevant
products issued or provided by the firm itself or by entities having close links with the firm; or
other entities with which the firm has such close legal or economic relationships, including
contractual relationships, as to present a risk of impairing the independent basis of the
advice provided.' (See FCA Handbook COBS 6.2B.11)
These are the key differences between independent and restricted financial advisers:
Independent
Restricted
Will consider all retail investment products Yes No
Can focus only on a particular market No Yes
Can consider products only from certain product providers No Yes
Has to explain to you the type of advice they offer Yes Yes
Can use ‘independent’ to describe the advice they offer Yes No
Incentivised to recommend one product over another No No
Page 4 of 34 General Disclosure Document 23/3/2022