I feel destroyed

cuzman_2

Nearly two years ago my long-standing battle for compensation ended, and I accepted £150,000 out of court as a settlement for my disability. I felt bad then, but I was advised that, should it have gone all the way to court, a legal technicality may have resulted in the judge throwing the case out. My solicitors had previously valued my claim at £500,000.

I invested my money with an IFA, and I gave the brief that I needed a monthly payment from this money in respect of interest from wherever it was invested, and eventually I could put the money towards my own house. I was advised to invest £7k in an ISA for 2006/7, another £7K in an ISA for 2007/8, and however much of the balance in various funds via their company. I took £6k to put in a building society account, holiday, and a few luxuries I felt I owed myself in life, and the remaining £130k went into the investments.

I was happy with my extra c.£600 each month from my £130k until I asked the assurance company it was invested with yesterday how much the fund value was. A customer service advisor told me that the fund value was just over £28k. No mistype, not £128k, but £28k.

I remember filling out the forms before I invested the money and I said I didn't want any great risks. So how did I end up losing more than £100k in less than two years? I fought so hard for that money for years, and now it has nearly all gone. I expect that, by the end of the year there won't be any money left to pay me the monthly "interest". I'm not a happy bunny. I don't know how I'm going to get on in life now. Somebody somewhere is laughing at earning another £100k from betting on the shares going down that my fund was invested in.

jauntyangle

It sounds like your advisor didn't properly assess your attitude to risk - even with the current stock market situation that seems like a massive drop.

Do you know the names of the funds you're invested in?

nicholbb

I'd phone again and see if you get the same answer and ask for it in writing to double check.

1echidna

I am so sorry to hear of your experience. It will be of little comfort to you to know that the market has always been a place where some lose and some have gained over past decades.

opinions4u

Go and see your IFA. Get them to explain why your funds were invested in the way they were.

Make notes, ask for copies of the documentation they made at the time of the original investments.

Then take them to another IFA for a 2nd opinion.

Then you can decide whether or not a mis-selling claim against the original IFA is apropriate.

iamesbo

Sorry to hear of your plight, my opinion of IFA's is not very high, they are just
people onto a nice little earner in my opinion.

There are some who 'ply their trade on here' apparently.

I wonder if one will crawl out of the wood work and defend their profession?

I remember one on here, before I joined, castigating some poor woman who lost
a similar amount of her savings in bank shares. He was telling her how stupid she was
not going to see an IFA, he had no sympathy for her at all. Now doubt that
made her feel better!!
Someone there defended her saying not to blame herself because she could still have
lost her money even if she had seen an IFA, he disagreed.

I wonder if he is about at the moment, I think his ID was something like dunston or some thing like that.
The person defending here was called "esbo", not seen him around on here for a while though,
he used to post a lot, dunno what happened. If you search on esbo's earlier posts you might find the thread.

iamesbo

"Imagine actually paying him for advice!"
I can't ever imagine doing that edwinac. :rotfl:

Just my personal opinion obviously, I trust IFA's about as much as I trust horse racing tipsters - if they were any good they would be billionaires :rotfl:

cheerfulcat

cuzman wrote: »

I remember filling out the forms before I invested the money and I said I didn't want any great risks. So how did I end up losing more than £100k in less than two years?

Two questions - how is the money in the ISAs doing? And was the £130,000 put into an investment bond?

jamesd

cuzman wrote: »

I invested my money with an IFA

Please give the name of the IFA (private message is OK if you prefer) so that it can be checked that they are an IFA not just an FA. There may be a significant difference in how much redress might be available based on the exact category into which they fit.

cuzman wrote: »

and eventually I could put the money towards my own house. ... I remember filling out the forms before I invested the money and I said I didn't want any great risks. ... Somebody somewhere is laughing at earning another £100k from betting on the shares going down that my fund was invested in.

Please say more about that form and everything you did and were asked that may have given any idea about your willingness to take risks.

What did you pay for the advice, in initial fees and/or commission?

Please give the exact names of all of the investments and of any overall product that was involved so that their risk properties can be checked.

It appears initially that you may have been advised to use emerging markets funds, something that would be well above the risk level that you have described here.

It appears from the description so far that provided the firm was an IFA firm and was providing investment advice you may be entitled to redress, paying you all of the difference between the money you have now and the money that you would have had if you had been advised to invest according to the risk tolerance that you specified.

The general process is to first get the facts about the guidance you gave the firm, then compare what they did with that. Once a difference has been identified you start out using that IFA firm's complaints procedure and persevere until they accept the claim or give you a final notice that they are no longer willing to offer more. After that, if you feel that the offer is not sufficient, you can seek the assistance of the ombudsman, who will first try to assist both parties in seeking a resolution but may then, if required, decide how the dispute is to be resolved. The firm would be required to accept that but you would then, if you chose, have the option of using legal action.

Before all that comes determining the facts, which is what we're just started on here.

Please do all that you can to assist dunstonh and cheerfulcat if they ask you questions. They are experts in this area and at least one of them has in the past assisted posters here in getting redress.

Don't assume at this point that I'm saying that you will be able to get your money back. It's far too early to suggest that and I'm just seeking facts and describing general process options that might, or might not, apply at present.

StevieJ

That is terrible, I personally cannot think of anyway that I could have turned 130k into 28k over the last two years in any sort of portfolio spread.

cheerfulcat

StevieJ, I'm guessing that it's been heavily invested in corporate bonds and property, with units sold every month to provide an " income ".