Appropriateness Assessment Form

First Time Investing 🐣
1

I would be grateful for thoughts on this.
Trying to buy some shares ( <£100) on another platform (Share is not on FT yet) and was blocked as needed to complete this despite having purchased the same share a couple of months ago (and received a small dividend already).
Apparently this stock has been assessed as ‘complex’ by their custodian.
I recall at the meeting in Manchester recently that this was raised by one of the attendees.
Is this a common occurrence and what determines a stock to be complex?
Thanks

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Is it a hedge fund? Normally you need to fill in an assessment for complex instruments. Odd if you purchased it before.

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Thanks Lucas.
The stock is ‘SONG’ (Hipgnosis) It is classed in the ‘Specialist Fund Segment’ on the LSE but did not think it was that complex

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It seems they are effectively a fund. And are deemed higher risk than most…

Extract from HL, ‘Investors in the Company are expected to be institutional investors, professional investors, professionally advised investors and highly knowledgeable investors who understand, or who have been advised of, the potential risks from investing in the Company.’

So an assessment form would make sense. Similar to crowdfunding where they ask you a number of questions to make sure you know what you are investing in.

Interesting product - investing in musical intellectual property rights!

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Thanks again Lucas.
It is an interesting area and there is an active marketplace for buying royalties. SONG have a target 5% dividend so hope they get on to FT as the platform expands.

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In this instance “what determines a [Product] to be complex” is the wonderful PRIIPs rules. :wink:

PRIIPs sets in place a series of rules (some very questionable) that the ‘manufacturer’ (product provider, fund manager) has to use to assess and disclose the complexity of their offering. Anything deemed complex needs disclosing within the KID. You’ll see words similar to “this product is not simple and may be difficult to understand”

As per usual all platforms and brokers don’t all sing from the same hymn sheet and some enforce an appropriateness test and others don’t.

Another example of best intentions but poor execution. Legislation designed to aid the end retail investor just ends up annoying and confusing us even more.

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Thanks for the information finki