After years of British financial advisors and discretionary fund managers talking about it and preparing for it, the Senior Managers and Certification Regime is almost here. A handy guide has been created to help advisory firms realise the things that they still ought to do before the deadline of 9 December arrives.

The guide includes all the relevant steps that practitioners need to take. There are steps that should just take under half an hour to complete, such as filling out and submitting a Form K, which has become available recently, to ones that could take a day or more.

The creation of a structural chart, the identification of staff, the writing of a statement of responsibilities and the training of all senior managers and certification staff are all of the utmost importance and must now happen as soon as possible.

There are some tasks which firms might take longer to complete, such as reviewing their governance arrangements to ensure that they meet the Financial Conduct Authority's expectations for the new regime and training all appropriate staff and making sure that they are competent to do their jobs.

Third-party support providers are available to help and guide firms through these steps. At Paradigm we have also created free SM&CR and T&C eBooks and are offering "consultancy days" to help firms prepare for the deadline. This should also help firms to embed the SM&CR into their culture and ways of working.

The FCA has said it will review firms' compliance after the SM&CR implementation date, asking them to prove to it that they took all reasonable steps to be ready by 9th December.

The SM&CR final actions PDF guide can be downloaded here: www.consultparadigm.co.uk/SM-CR-checklist