Attitude to Risk - ????

DarrenB

Hi,

Well done to all who have been awarded compensation re endowment mis-selling... you've inspired me to have go!

I now have my questionnaire from the firm who are investigating my complaint.

There is a section on the form asking for my 'attitude to risk' - what sort of answer are they looking for? Not sure what to put...I'm afraid if say 'I understood the risk' my claim will be thrown out...?

Any advice very gratefully received!!!

Cheers!

dunstonh

what sort of answer are they looking for? Not sure what to put...I'm afraid if say 'I understood the risk' my claim will be thrown out...?

They will look at what you say and measure that against what you have. Questions like this serve two purposes. They can be used to see if the endowment funds matched your risk profile. However, they can also be used to see if you are telling the truth or not. An awful lot of complaints are settled on the balance of probability and in those cases, where one side has been caught out telling lies or misrepresenting the information, they tend to lose out on balance of probability decisions.

I suggest you tell the truth. That is always the right thing to do.

EdInvestor

DarrenB wrote: »

There is a section on the form asking for my 'attitude to risk' - what sort of answer are they looking for? Not sure what to put...I'm afraid if say 'I understood the risk' my claim will be thrown out...?

Most endowment misselling claims are successful because the sale did not match the client's attitude to risk.

If for instance, you were not told

a)that your money would be invested in the stockmarket
b)that there was a risk that the endowment might not pay back the mortgage ( not just fail to produce an extra lump sum)

and if you would have refused the endowment if you had known that, then the salesman did not take proper account of your attitude to risk and should not have sold you the endowment.

It's usually not wise to go into any detail when making a misselling claim, keep it short and sweet, giving no answer at all is quite acceptable, it was a long time ago.

Most companies are asking you these questions because they have lost or destroyed their own files.They are fishing for information.If they don't obtain any they will find it hard to defend against your claim.It is for them to show that what you say is wrong, not the other way round.
.

dunstonh

Most endowment misselling claims are successful because the sale did not match the client's attitude to risk.

Actually, most are becuse of missing or insufficient documentation. Although that doesnt really count because they typically result in a not upheld but redress paid outcome. Whereas wrong risk profile would be an upheld.

It's usually not wise to go into any detail when making a misselling claim, keep it short and sweet, giving no answer at all is quite acceptable, it was a long time ago.

Certainly agree on the first bit. Some people say far too much and end up digging holes form themselves. However, be wary on using the "can't remember, it was too long ago" response as cannot remember can work against you. If you make a complaint saying "I remember being told it would pay off and give a lump sum" etc etc then start saying "I cant remember" to other points then you start to lose out on balance of probability decisons.

DarrenB

Thanks guys for your replies.

I'm probably reading too much into the question... I did a search on 'attitude to risk' and found that investors use a scale of 1 to 10 to indicate their attitude to risk.

I don't think I should go too technical... I'll keep it simple...

cheers!