SIFA Legal

SIFA

Financial services and OFR compliance support for solicitors

Website: www.sifalegal.co.uk
Telephone: 01372 721172
Email: ian.muirhead@sifa.co.uk or stuart.bushell@sifa.co.uk
DX: 30708 Epsom

SIFA was formed by a solicitor in 1992 to assist solicitors in extending the scope of their client services to include financial advice. This has been given impetus by the Legal Services Act, which is prompting firms to consider the benefits of providing an holistic professional service to differentiate them from other legal services providers and form the basis for regular client contact as trusted advisers.

As a result of working closely over the past 10 years with the Financial Services Authority, which has recognised SIFA as a professional trade body, SIFA has gained invaluable experience of the FSA's style of regulation on which the SRA's outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) is based. This, combined with SIFA's close connection with the profession (two of its directors were previously senior Law Society officials) has enabled SIFA to establish a support service for law firms' compliance officers and to assist firms seeking consultancy advice on alternative business structures including but not limited to those involving financial advisers.

The SIFA Legal website contains a wide range of information of value to solicitors, including the Law Society-endorsed SIFA Directory of Professional Financial Advisers. This directory only lists fee-based IFA firms that have satisfied SIFA's Lexcel-approved due diligence criteria for the selection of IFAs by solicitors. The directory can be searched by location and those areas of legal specialisation that give rise to the need for financial advice - namely trusts and estates, older clients, family, PI and Court of Protection, property, corporate, portfolio management, and offshore/expatriate.

Also available via this site are:

  • the compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) and compliance officer for financial and administration (COFA) support service, comprising a comprehensive compliance manual with precedents, telephone and email helplines, monthly compliance bulletins, CPD accredited webcasts, and on-site monitoring visits
  • free technical handbooks on trust investment, pensions and divorce, estate planning, personal injury investment, advice to older clients
  • free client marketing material and newsletters
  • SIFA's most recent articles for the legal press
  • details of the SIFA/DWF Joint Venture documentation kit
  • the annual SIFA conference and other events