Who counts as a representative under the FAIS Act, who the admin carve-out excludes, and what section 13 requires before anyone advises on WhatsApp.
Under the FAIS Act, a representative is any person, including someone employed or mandated by that person, who renders a financial service to a client for or on behalf of an authorised financial services provider, under conditions of employment or any other mandate. The definition excludes people doing clerical, technical, administrative, legal, accounting or other work in a subsidiary or subordinate capacity, where that work does not require judgment or does not lead a client to a specific transaction in response to general enquiries. In plain terms: if a person in your brokerage advises clients or does something that results in a client entering into a policy, they are a representative, the FSP answers for what they do, and their name belongs on your register.
That sounds tidy until you look at who actually answers the brokerage WhatsApp number. The receptionist who confirms a debit order date, the claims administrator who asks for a photo of the damage, and the adviser who suggests adding a second vehicle to a policy are all typing into the same thread. Only some of them are representatives. This guide walks through the definition element by element, the section 13 conditions, the register itself, and how to draw the line in a chat channel.
The definition sits in section 1 of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002, as amended. Each part of it does work, and each part has a practical consequence for a brokerage.
| Element of the definition | What it means | Brokerage example |
|---|---|---|
| "Any person, including a person employed or mandated by such first-mentioned person" | Natural persons and juristic persons; the wording also reaches people working for a representative | A sole adviser, or a small company that sells under your licence and has its own staff |
| "Renders a financial service to a client" | Furnishes advice, renders an intermediary service, or both | Recommending a funeral plan; submitting an application or processing a policy change for a client |
| "For or on behalf of a financial services provider" | The service is rendered under the FSP's authorisation, not the person's own | The adviser acts under your FSP licence, not one of their own |
| "In terms of conditions of employment or any other mandate" | Employees and mandated persons (contractors, juristic representatives) are both covered | A salaried adviser and a commission-only contractor are both representatives |
| Exclusion for subordinate-capacity work | Clerical, technical, administrative, legal or accounting support that needs no judgment or does not steer a client to a transaction | Capturing documents, booking a call-back, confirming a payment date |
"Financial service" is itself defined through the two activities that make someone a financial services provider: furnishing advice, and rendering an intermediary service. Intermediary service is broad. Beyond acts that result in a client entering into a transaction, it includes acts performed with a view to buying, selling, managing, administering, maintaining or servicing a financial product a client has bought. That is why a person who never recommends anything can still be a representative if they process changes to client policies.
The exclusion protects ordinary support work. Section 1(3)(a) of the Act points the same way from the other side: advice does not include factual advice given merely on the procedure for entering into a transaction, describing a financial product, answering routine administrative queries, giving objective information about a product, or displaying or distributing promotional material.
So a team member who tells a client "your debit order runs on the date in your schedule" or "please send the vehicle registration papers" is not furnishing advice. The trouble starts when the same person answers "is my bakkie covered for a trip to Botswana?" with "yes, you're fine". That answer requires judgment about the policy wording and leads the client to rely on it. The wording of the exclusion uses "or" between its two limbs, and practitioners read it in different ways; most compliance officers take the cautious view that support staff who exercise judgment about cover, or who steer a client toward a product, have crossed into representative territory. If you are unsure about a role, put the question to your compliance officer in writing and keep the answer.
| Role | Who it is | What attaches to it |
|---|---|---|
| Authorised FSP | The person or entity licensed by the FSCA that renders financial services as a regular feature of its business (a representative is expressly excluded from this definition) | Holds the licence, accepts responsibility for its representatives, keeps the register |
| Representative | The person rendering financial services on the FSP's behalf | Must meet fit and proper requirements, act only in the FSP's name, appear on the register |
| Key individual | A natural person responsible for managing or overseeing, alone or with others, the financial-services activities of an FSP or of a representative that is a body, trust or partnership | Approved by the FSCA; for a juristic representative, also listed on the FSP's register |
In a small brokerage the same person is often the key individual and a representative at once. That is normal, but the two hats come with separate obligations, and the register has to show both.
Section 13 of the Act sets the conditions under which a person may act as a representative of an authorised FSP. Read with the definition, it gives a brokerage four things to check for every person who will advise or intermediate.
Section 13(2) then puts a continuing duty on the FSP: it must at all times be satisfied that its representatives, and their key individuals, are competent to act and comply with the fit and proper requirements, and it must take reasonable steps to make sure they comply with the applicable codes of conduct and other conduct laws.
Section 13(3) requires every authorised FSP to maintain a register of its representatives and of the key individuals of those representatives. It must be regularly updated and available to the FSCA for reference or inspection. Section 13(4) sets the minimum content:
Section 13(5) allows the Authority to require that information so it can maintain a central register of all representatives and key individuals, which is published. That central record is what a client, an insurer or another FSP checks before dealing with a person. When the FSCA itself debars a representative, the FSP has five days after being informed to remove that name from its own register. When the FSP has to debar someone, the process is the one described in our article on FAIS debarment under section 14.
The register is only as good as the categories it records. A representative listed for short-term personal lines who starts answering questions about a long-term risk policy in a WhatsApp thread is acting outside the categories the register shows, and the FSP has accepted responsibility for that conversation.
Chat collapses the distance between support and advice. A client asks one question about a payment and then, in the next message, a question about cover. The practical answer is not to stop support staff answering, but to make the handoff explicit and visible.
Support staff, handing off a cover question:
"Hi [first name], thanks for your message. Questions about what your policy covers are answered by one of our advisers, so I've passed this to [adviser name], who will reply in this chat today."
Representative, first contact with a new client:
"Hi [first name], I'm [adviser name], an authorised representative of [brokerage name], FSP [FSP number]. Our disclosure document, which confirms that I act for [brokerage name] and that the brokerage accepts responsibility for my advice, is attached. How can I help?"
Representative, outside their categories:
"Thanks [first name]. That question is about a life policy, which a colleague handles. I've asked [colleague name] to pick it up here so you don't need to repeat yourself."
The second message does not replace your formal disclosures; it points to them at the moment the client starts relying on a person. Keep the wording approved by your compliance officer and use it consistently.
A shared tool can make this structure visible without making regulatory calls for you. In ORIS the brokerage connects one WhatsApp Business number, every conversation sits on the customer record in a shared inbox, admin and broker roles are separate, and audit logs record activity. AI-suggested replies arrive as drafts for a person to review, and auto-reply runs only under rules the firm sets, with prompts that exclude advice and any promise on price or cover. Deciding who is a representative, and keeping your register right, stays with the FSP. Market context for South African brokerages is in our South Africa country guide.
Section 1 of the FAIS Act defines a representative as any person, including someone employed or mandated by that person, who renders a financial service to a client for or on behalf of a financial services provider, under employment or another mandate. People doing clerical, technical, administrative, legal or accounting work in a subordinate capacity that needs no judgment or does not steer a client to a transaction are excluded.
It depends on what they do, not on their title. Answering routine administrative queries and giving factual information is excluded from advice. Recommending cover, telling a client what a policy covers, or processing transactions on a client's policy can make the person a representative, and the FSP must then treat them as one.
Yes. The definition says "any person", and the Act refers to the key individuals of representatives, which only makes sense for a company, trust or partnership acting as a representative. The FSP's register must then list the juristic representative and its key individuals.
Under section 13(4), each representative's or key individual's name and business address, whether the representative acts as an employee or a mandatary, and the categories in which the representative is competent to render financial services. It must be regularly updated and available to the FSCA.
No. A representative renders financial services under the authorisation of the FSP that appoints them, and must do so in that FSP's name. The FSP accepts responsibility for the representative's activities within the scope of the mandate, which is why the definition and the register matter so much to the licence holder.
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