Applicant questions
- - How will the firm receive, classify, investigate, escalate, resolve, and record complaints?
- - Who owns conduct risk, client communications, disclosures, and remediation?
- - How will complaints feed into compliance monitoring and board reporting?
Why regulators ask
- - Complaints evidence shows whether the applicant can handle client harm and learn from failures.
- - Conduct controls connect client communications, suitability, conflicts, disclosures, and remediation.
- - Ignoring complaints until launch can leave a major gap in operating readiness.
What good looks like
- - Complaint channels, timeframes, owners, escalation, root-cause analysis, and records are defined.
- - Complaints link to compliance monitoring, board reporting, training, and product/process changes.
- - Client communications and disclosures are consistent with the regulated activity.
Documents to prepare
- - Complaints handling policy.
- - Complaint register template.
- - Escalation and root-cause process.
- - Client communications and disclosure review process.
- - Remediation and board reporting workflow.
Red flags
- - Complaints are treated as customer support only.
- - No independent review or escalation exists for serious conduct issues.
- - Marketing or disclosure issues are not fed back into compliance monitoring.
Build steps
- 1. Define complaint channels, owners, and classification rules.
- 2. Connect complaints to conduct risk, conflicts, disclosure, and compliance monitoring.
- 3. Build a complaint register before launch.
Disclaimer
Information on LicenseCompare is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, regulatory, financial, tax, investment, or professional advice. Licensing requirements depend on facts and change over time. Always consult official regulator materials and qualified professional advisers.