Legal and Regulatory Information

Phi Finney McDonald UK Ltd (“PFM UK”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is a company registered in England and Wales (registered number 12245900), and which practices from the registered address of 25 Southampton Buildings, Holborn, London, WC2A 1AL.

Phi Finney McDonald UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) with the SRA Number 669330. The SRA Standards & Regulations 2019 set out our professional and ethical rules and obligations (including the SRA Codes of Conduct and SRA Accounts Rules), and you can view them at www.sra.org.uk.

Our VAT number is 348492858.

Our worldwide professional indemnity insurer is Travelers Insurance Company Ltd of 61-63 London Road, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1NA.

Anti-money laundering

We may require clients to provide documents and information concerning the contracting client entity and related persons, entities or affiliates, to comply with relevant anti-money laundering laws and regulations. We may be prevented from carrying out your instructions if our requirements are not met, which often include verifying the identities of your ultimate beneficial owners.

Where we have reasonable evidence to suspect that a transaction involves criminal proceeds, we may be required by law to disclose otherwise confidential information to the National Crime Agency. We may not be able to inform you that we have made the disclosure or the reasons for it. We may have to cease acting for you. We will tell you about any potential money laundering problem and explain what actions we may need to take where the law permits us to do so. We will have no liability to you for complying with our duties and such legislation.

Financial Services and Markets Act 2000

Some investment-related activities (including insurance distribution activities) of PFM UK are regulated by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 of the United Kingdom (“FSMA”).

Like most law firms, we are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) under the FSMA. Instead, we are authorised and regulated by the SRA. The Law Society is a designated professional body under the FSMA, but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative functions. The SRA is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints about lawyers registered in England and Wales. We can provide investment-related services (including insurance distribution activities, which broadly are advising on, selling and the administration of insurance contracts) if they are an incidental part of the professional services we are engaged to provide, if they can reasonably be regarded as a necessary part of our professional services, or if we are otherwise permitted to provide them under the FSMA. We are included on a register maintained by the FCA and we are permitted by the FCA to carry on insurance distribution activities. You can access the register via the FCA website at www.fca.org.uk/register.

Managing Complaints

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we provided, please inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

In the first instance, please contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure, which we will provide on request. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman may be able to help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. The Legal Ombudsman’s services are only available for certain types of complaints and complainants. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

• Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint

and

• No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
• No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.

For more information contact the Legal Ombudsman.

If you are a client and your complaint is about our invoices, you may also apply to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors’ Act 1974. If all or part of any bill remains unpaid after it is due, we may charge interest.

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.