You will build a one-page summary of what you may do, what you may not do, and where your firm's rules are written down.
Daniel has been notified for three weeks. A client has just asked whether he can bring a small gift to say thank you, a friend wants him to give a talk at her company, and his manager suggested he post about a new plan on Instagram. Each time, Daniel's answer was "let me check". Each time, he spent twenty minutes searching his inbox and the firm's intranet for the rule. This exercise builds the page that saves him that time.
The output is a single page you keep with your meeting kit. It says what you may advise on, what needs someone else's approval first, and who to ask when you are unsure. You will check it before a meeting, which is when it can still change what you do.
Search your own name on the MAS Register of Representatives, as you did at the end of lesson 1.1, Financial advice is a regulated act, not a sales pitch. Copy down the firm you represent, the activities and product types listed against your name, and the date you were notified. If you are not yet a representative, use an adviser you know and the product types of the role you are considering, and mark the page as a draft.
Then add the exams that sit behind each product type, from the note you wrote in lesson 1.2, How a representative is appointed, examined and kept current. Put this at the top of the page. It is the answer to the most basic question: am I allowed to advise on this at all?
Every firm writes its rules down somewhere, though at some firms they are spread across a handbook, a set of policies and a stream of circulars from compliance. Ask for the current versions, because the copy you saved at onboarding may already be out of date. Then search them for four topics, and for each one note the section number and the rule in a single line:
Advice: the forms you must use, the steps of a sale and what happens to a case before it is submitted. Marketing: what you may post, print or say in public, and what needs approval first. Gifts and entertainment: what you may give or accept, any value limit, and whether you must declare it. Complaints: what you do when a client complains, and who you pass it to.
Use your own words for each summary. Copying the manual's wording feels safer, but it hides whether you have understood the rule, and a rule you cannot put into one line of your own is one to mark as a question for compliance.
Some decisions are not yours to make alone. Go through the manual again and list every action that needs a supervisor's or compliance team's approval before you act. Typical examples include marketing material and social posts, seminars and roadshows, certain types of cases such as policy replacements or purchases against your advice, and gifts above a set value. Your firm's list will differ, which is the point of reading your own.
For each item, note who signs off and how long it usually takes. A post that needs a week of approval cannot be written the night before you want it up.
Finally, write down the name or team you go to in compliance, how to reach them, and how quickly they usually reply. Add your supervisor and a back-up for when either is away. Ask a colleague who has been there longer how fast replies come in practice, because the official answer and the real one are not always the same.
Daniel's finished page looked like this. The rules and section numbers come from an example firm, so yours will differ.
At the top, under what he may advise on: "Notified with [firm] since [date] for life insurance. Not notified for investment-linked policies or collective investment schemes. Exams: the CMFAS modules for life insurance listed by IBF, passed [month, year]."
Under rules, four lines with section numbers. Advice: "Use the firm fact-find and recommendation forms for every case. Section 4." Marketing: "Anything mentioning a product, a return or the firm needs approval before it goes out, including Instagram. Section 7." Gifts: "Declare any gift given or received above the firm's limit. Section 9." Complaints: "Record it and pass to compliance the same day. Do not try to settle it. Section 11."
Under sign-off: "Social posts and talks: compliance, about five working days. Replacement cases: supervisor sign-off before submission. Client choosing against my advice: supervisor sign-off."
Under contacts: compliance team inbox and phone, usual reply within two working days; supervisor's mobile; a senior colleague as back-up.
With that page, Daniel's three questions take a minute each. The client's gift needs a declaration if it is over the limit. The company talk needs approval and five working days. The Instagram post needs approval too, so he drafts it and sends it in rather than posting it that evening.
Your page fits on one side. It names your notified product types and exams, gives one line and a section number for each of the four rule areas, lists what needs sign-off with lead times, and names your contacts. Anything you could not answer is marked as a question with the date you asked it.
Keep it next to your meeting kit: in the folder you take to meetings or pinned on your phone. In the activity below you put all of this onto your licence summary, and from then on you read it before meetings rather than after something goes wrong.
Fill in the one-page licence summary template with your notified product types, sign-off rules and compliance contacts.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).