Compass Compliance Consulting
Independent Compliance Oversight

About us

Independent Compliance Oversight, From Both Sides of the Table

Compass Compliance Consulting was built on one conviction: that the best compliance support comes from people who understand how financial advice is delivered and importantly how it may potentially be judged through a retrospective regulatory lens.

Why Compass

Most compliance problems in the financial advice sector aren't caused by bad intentions. They come from the gaps between policy and practice: between the compliance manual and the adviser's file, between the platform's dealing desk and often misaligned client expectations, between the legislation and the system that has to apply it.

Steve Farrelly founded Compass Compliance Consulting after a career spent working in those gaps. He has supported financial advisers and appointed representatives inside national advice networks. He has investigated suitability disputes as an investigator at the Financial Ombudsman Service and been a senior reviewer on Section 166 Skilled Person and institutional remediation programmes with KPMG and Deloitte. He has worked as a pensions technical subject matter expert, translating legislation into regulatory compliant processes.

That breadth of experience is what makes Compass Compliance Consulting different. We assess the way the regulator does, and we recommend fixes the way an operations director would need them: precise, proportionate and workable in a real business.

The name reflects the job. Regulated firms don't need more checklists. They need a reliable bearing: an independent view of where they stand against the rules and potential risks, and a clear route to where they need to be.

Steve Farrelly, Principal Consultant, at his desk

Our principles

How We Approach Every Engagement

  • Forensic, Not Formulaic

    We test the substantive validity of advice—not just whether a checklist is complete. Every finding is rooted in FCA sourcebooks (COBS, SYSC, PRIN 2A), evidenced in the file, and defensible before a regulator or Ombudsman adjudicator.

  • Objective Judgement

    Our conclusions follow the evidence without bias. Where advice is sound and defensible, we provide the technical rationale to stand your ground; where genuine detriment exists, we call it out clearly and quantify the exposure.

  • Operationally Grounded

    Compliance advice fails if it cannot survive frontline reality. We design remediations for real CRM workflows, dealing desks, and platform settlement cycles—not for an idealised, theoretical advice practice.

  • Proportionate and Actionable

    We distinguish administrative formatting gaps from genuine customer detriment. You get prioritised, RAG-rated actions that protect your permissions and PI history without paralysing your advisers in red tape.

Portrait of Steve Farrelly, Principal Consultant

Steve Farrelly MCSI

Principal Consultant

Steve is a CISI Level 6 qualified pensions specialist (Pension Transfers & Planning Advice) and a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. He has more than 20 years' experience across regulatory conduct, advisory quality assurance and dispute resolution.

His career spans the full regulatory lifecycle. He has supported advisers and ARs inside national advice networks, including leading complaint remediations, writing DISP final responses, reviewing DB transfers and embedding Consumer Duty root-cause MI. As an investigator at the Financial Ombudsman Service he handled pension suitability complaints, SIPP operator due diligence cases and redress calculations. As a senior reviewer on Section 166 and institutional programmes with KPMG, Deloitte and the FSCS, he led entity investigations, group structure analysis, non-standard investment reviews and file QA.

Steve leads regulatory and pensions technical interpretation for wealth platforms and administrators—translating complex legislation and HMRC requirements into resilient, end-to-end operational and reporting frameworks.

  • DB Transfers & DBAAT
  • SIPP Due Diligence
  • Ongoing Advice Charging
  • FOS Dispute Resolution
  • S166 & Past-Business Reviews
  • AML / UBO Investigations
  • Consumer Duty MI
  • Pensions Tax & Decumulation

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Track record

Experience Across the Regulatory Lifecycle

  1. 01

    Advisory Networks

    Compliance oversight for advisers and Appointed Representatives: complaint remediation, DISP final responses, DB transfer reviews and Consumer Duty MI.

  2. 02

    Financial Ombudsman Service

    Investigating pension suitability complaints, SIPP operator due diligence and redress calculations.

  3. 03

    Section 166 & Institutional Reviews (KPMG / Deloitte)

    Senior reviewer leading entity investigations, group structure analysis and file QA across high-volume regulatory review programmes.

  4. 04

    Investment & Claims Audits (FSCS / Deloitte)

    Analysing recommendations for non-standard investments and managing complex dispute investigations.

  5. 05

    Pensions Technical Oversight

    Owning the technical interpretation of pensions legislation for platform and administration operations.

  • CISI Member (MCSI)
  • CISI Level 6: Pension Transfers & Planning Advice
  • Former FOS Investigator
  • Section 166 Skilled Person Reviewer
  • ICO Registered [ZA000000]

Need a Senior, Independent View?

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