A 45-minute, CPD-assessed course for anyone whose post, slide or email could turn out to be a regulated communication. What counts, what fair, clear and not misleading asks of a draft, who may approve a promotion, social media and testimonials, and what the Consumer Duty adds. Scheduled, chased and certified for you.
CPD assessed. Every pass issues a certificate carrying the CPD mark.Most breaches are not adverts. They are ordinary communications that turned out to be regulated.
Written for investment and advisory firms, including professional-only firms whose material can still reach a retail reader.
The things that turn out to be promotions, two defences that do not work, why the label matters, the exemptions in outline, the three ways firms lose one, and real-time and non-real-time promotions.
Fair, clear and not misleading when you are actually drafting, performance figures, prominence and the overall impression, internal sign-off, approving a promotion for an unauthorised person, and records.
What makes a claim misleading, sustainability claims and the anti-greenwashing rule, awards and superlatives, testimonials and case studies, social media, and affiliates, influencers and anyone paid to talk about the firm.
What the Duty asks of a promotion, how to test whether it landed without a research budget, and one nuance worth having straight.
Why moving somebody up a client category is a process not a description, why who can reach a promotion decides more than who it was written for, and the retail reader you actually have.
What to do in order when a promotion should not be live, if the firm approved it for somebody else, what happens once something has gone out, and where it lands on you personally. Includes a filmed scenario.
What to take away and three things to do this week, followed by the test and the certificate.
The course names rulebooks in outline, because knowing which one applies to your product is a real skill, and does not ask anybody to recite a paragraph number. By the end, a learner can:
A short film, shot for Fundsure with the same cast across the catalogue, puts the learner beside a colleague who has found a post about the firm’s products, on a colleague’s own account, that should not have gone out. The learner chooses what he should do, and is told why the tempting answers are wrong: replying to ask for a correction, leaving it because it is a personal account, or asking for it to be taken down quietly, which destroys the evidence of what went out.
The test at the end draws 10 questions from a bank of 30, with a pass mark of 80%, and a pass issues a named, CPD-marked certificate that anyone can check online.
Checked against the Handbook, FG24/1 and the FCA's 2026 findings. Last checked Sept 2026.
Since 07-Feb-24 a firm cannot approve a promotion for an unauthorised person without a specific FCA permission. The FCA's review of ten approver firms, published 27-May-26, found unsubstantiated claims approved and retail investors reaching professional-only material.
International weeks of action in June 2025 and April 2026, the second with seventeen regulators, brought arrests, takedowns and a guilty plea for illegal promotions on social media.
FG24/1 remains current: each promotion must comply on its own, key information must not be truncated, and firms must brief and monitor the affiliates and influencers who promote for them.
The FCA's consumer understanding findings of 13-Mar-26 make the point that a disclosure is not an understanding, and firms should test whether communications land.
Qualifying cryptoassets remain restricted mass market investments with their own risk warning, incentive ban and cooling-off pause, and the promotions rules are the live control until the wider regime arrives in 2027.
The FCA consulted in April 2026 on stripping back prescriptive consumer credit promotion rules to the Consumer Duty. Fewer forms of words put more weight on the person drafting.
Compliance sign-off catches what reaches it. Most promotion breaches start with somebody who did not know they were writing one, which is why the people drafting, posting and presenting need to know the rules as well as the person signing off.
In the Fundsure Portal the course is scheduled for the people who need it, chased before the deadline, and every sitting, score and certificate is kept and carried into the compliance officer’s report to the board.
How the portal runs trainingFinancial Promotions plus Market Conduct, Conduct Rules, Suitability and the rest of the catalogue of 20, with no per-course fees.
Where a misleading statement about an investment can be market abuse too.
See the courseFair treatment and good outcomes for retail customers under the Consumer Duty.
See the courseFor advisers and discretionary managers deciding for individual clients.
See the courseThe induction: permissions, the Handbook and the anti-greenwashing rule.
See the courseWe will send you a link to take the whole course, filmed scenario and test included, or walk you through the portal with a demonstration firm.
