THE LAUTRO RULES: TRAINING AND COMPETENCE Available to Purchase

The purpose of this paper is to summarise the initiatives taken by the Life Assurance and Unit Trust Regulatory Organisation (Lautro) in the field of training and competence. This is a timely opportunity for doing so. Lautro members are currently in the midst of an implementation programme designed to usher in a significant new set of regulatory requirements addressing training and competence issues. As explained below, a central plank of the programme is the requirement for member firms to establish and maintain in‐house training and assessment arrangements which meet standards set by Lautro. Those arrangements must focus upon individual advisers who sell the member's contracts and services to investors. The overall aim is to secure an adequate degree of investor protection by ensuring that individual advisers in the life, pensions and unit trust market are competent.