Financial Services and Markets Act 2000

Various practices of the firm are affected by financial services legislation and related regulations. Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP and its clients are required to comply with the appropriate regulations.

We are not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, but we are able, in certain circumstances, to offer a limited range of investment services to the client because we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide.

If you have any problem with the service we have provided for you then please let us know. We will try to resolve any problem quickly and operate an internal complaints handling system to help us to resolve the problem between ourselves. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us, then we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Complaints Service.

The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative functions. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and the Legal Complaints Service is the independent complaints handling body of the Law Society.

Insurance Mediation Activities

Whilst we are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Services Authority so that we can carry on insurance mediation activity. Insurance mediation activity is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts.  This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

We only select products from a limited number of insurers for legal indemnity insurance and other policies of insurance commonly required in connection with property transactions in England and Wales. The FSA register can be accessed via the Financial Services Authority web site at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/register/.
We are retained only to provide legal and, where applicable, tax advice to our clients and nothing that we say or do should be construed as investment advice.