If you are receiving financial advice, your adviser must give you a disclosure statement. This is available to you free of charge.
If your advice is from an Authorised Financial Adviser (AFA), your adviser's disclosure statement must be in two parts.
AFA Primary Disclosure
The primary disclosure document will give you information to help you decide whether or not to use the adviser.
The document will tell you their contact details, describe the services they offer, provide a general description of how they are paid and provide other information about their obligations. The document will also tell you about their complaints procedure and the name of the dispute resolution scheme the adviser belongs to.
The primary disclosure is in a set format with compulsory questions that must be answered by the adviser. This means you can read the disclosure statements from different Authorised Financial Advisers (AFAs) and easily compare what each adviser can offer you.
AFA Secondary Disclosure
The secondary disclosure document describes the specific nature of the service your adviser will provide, what it will cost and how you will be charged. Since this will vary depending on the service you are seeking, there is no set format for this document. But the adviser must make sure they have provided you with sufficient information for you to decide whether to use their services.
QFE Adviser Disclosure
Qualifying Financial Entities don't have to follow a set format for their disclosure statements but they should give you an equivalent level of information.
This means you should expect their disclosure statement to tell you about the services they offer, how they are regulated, how to complain and how the adviser will be paid.
Registered Financial Adviser (RFA) Disclosure
RFAs can't give investment advice so they are not required to tell you how they will be paid. However, they must still disclose certain information to you such as the services they provide, how they are regulated and the name of the dispute resolution scheme they belong to.