If we have got something wrong, we want to hear about it — and you have a legal right to have it looked at properly, free of charge. This page tells you exactly how to complain, what will happen, how long it will take, and what to do if you are still unhappy at the end of it.
Contact us by phone, email or post. We will acknowledge you promptly and give you our final answer within eight weeks. If you are not satisfied with that answer — or if eight weeks pass without one — you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of charge. Complaining costs you nothing and does not affect the service you receive from us.
How to complain
You can complain in whichever way is easiest for you. You do not need to use a particular form, use particular words, or explain the regulations. Just tell us what happened and what you would like us to do about it.
By phone: 01270 747 989
By email: complaints@proactivlife.co.uk
By post: The Complaints Manager, ProActivLife Ltd, 3 Chester Bridge, Crewe, Cheshire, CW2 7EF
It helps us if you can tell us your name and how to reach you, roughly when the problem happened, which adviser you dealt with if you know, what went wrong, and what you would like us to do. But do not delay complaining because you cannot put all of that together — contact us and we will help you set it out.
Someone can complain on your behalf
A family member, friend, carer or professional adviser can complain for you. We will need your permission to discuss your affairs with them, which we can take over the phone. You do not need to use a claims management company, and you should know that they will normally charge you a percentage of any compensation, whereas complaining directly to us and to the Ombudsman is free.
If you need help to complain
Tell us if you need anything to make this easier — a large-print copy, more time, someone to talk it through with rather than write it down, or a conversation in your own language. We will arrange it. Needing support to complain has no bearing on how seriously we take the complaint.
What happens next
Our complaints procedure follows the FCA's rules in chapter DISP of the FCA Handbook. Because we are an appointed representative, complaints about regulated business are handled under the procedure of our principal firm, Financial Expert Partnership Ltd. Practically, that changes nothing about how you complain to us — but it does mean an independent set of eyes reviews the outcome.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Promptly | We acknowledge your complaint in writing, tell you who is dealing with it, and give you a copy of this procedure. |
| While we investigate | Someone not involved in what you are complaining about reviews the file. We may contact you for more detail. If we need longer than four weeks, we will write and tell you why. |
| Within 8 weeks | You receive our final response. It will say whether we uphold your complaint, explain our reasoning, set out anything we are offering to put it right, and tell you about your right to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service. |
| If 8 weeks pass | If we have not given you a final response within eight weeks, you can refer the complaint straight to the Financial Ombudsman Service without waiting for us. |
Where we get something wrong, putting it right can mean an apology, an explanation, correcting the mistake, refunding a fee, or paying compensation for a financial loss you have suffered. We will tell you plainly which of those we are offering and why.
Time limits for complaining to us
You should normally complain within:
- six years of the event you are complaining about, or
- three years of when you realised — or when it would be reasonable to expect you to have realised — that you had cause to complain.
These are the Financial Ombudsman Service's limits, and they are the ones that decide whether the Ombudsman can consider your complaint later. If you are outside them, complain anyway and explain the delay. The Ombudsman can still look at a late complaint in exceptional circumstances — serious illness or a bereavement at the relevant time, for example.
Taking it to the Financial Ombudsman Service
The Financial Ombudsman Service is a free, independent service that settles disputes between consumers and financial firms. It is not part of the industry and it is not on our side. If it decides in your favour it can order us to pay compensation, and that decision binds us.
You have six months from the date of our final response to take your complaint to the Ombudsman. If you leave it longer, they will usually not be able to help. Our final response will remind you of this deadline and of the exact date it expires.
Online: financial-ombudsman.org.uk/make-complaint — this is the quickest route
By phone: 0800 023 4567 — free from UK landlines and mobiles, open 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday
Alternative number: 0300 123 9 123 — costs no more than a call to an 01 or 02 number
From outside the UK: +44 20 7964 0500
Relay UK: 18002 020 7964 1000
British Sign Language: financialombudsman.signvideo.net
By post: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR
Website: financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Ombudsman contact details were checked against financial-ombudsman.org.uk on 8 September 2026.
Are you eligible?
The Ombudsman can consider complaints from private individuals, and from small businesses, charities and trusts below certain size thresholds. If you are not sure whether you qualify, contact them and ask — they will tell you, and it costs nothing to find out.
If we were no longer in business
If ProActivLife were to fail and you had a valid claim against us that we could not meet, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme may be able to compensate you instead. Cover is up to £85,000 per eligible person for mortgage advice, 100% of the claim for long-term insurance such as life cover and income protection, and 90% for general insurance. Full detail, and the current limits, are on our Legal & Regulatory page and at fscs.org.uk.
Complaints about other things
How we have used your personal information
Complain to us first — we would rather fix it. But you also have the right to complain directly to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. See our Privacy Policy.
Wills, trusts and solicitor introductions
These services are not regulated by the FCA, so the Financial Ombudsman Service cannot consider complaints about them. Complain to us about the introduction if the introduction itself was the problem. For the service you received from a will-writing provider or a solicitor, complain to that firm under its own procedure — and for a solicitor, to the Legal Ombudsman.
A lender or insurer, rather than us
If your complaint is about the way a lender or insurer has handled your mortgage or your policy — rather than about the advice we gave — it needs to go to them. Tell us anyway and we will help you work out who to approach and point you at their procedure.
What we do with complaints
Every complaint is recorded, and the record includes what caused it, not just how it was resolved. We report our complaints data to our principal firm, and complaints feed into adviser training and file review. A complaint that reveals a pattern changes how we work — that is the whole point of having a procedure rather than just an apology.
Complaining will never affect the service you get from us, the advice you are given, or your relationship with your adviser. If you ever feel it has, tell us and that becomes a complaint in its own right.