Need advise, saw Barclays financial planner

Aegis

countyourmoney wrote: »

Hi - I've got a question on Barclays too, my partner was advised a year or two ago to invest all his hard earned pension into a "safe" barclays portfolio and did it on the basis that his initial capital would not be affected even if the benefits went up or down. Now he's found his investment has lost not only all the benefits made to date but his capital has reduced by 10k too. He has complained that he was told the capital was safe and has now received a letter telling him his complaint has not been upheld, is there anything we can do?

Do you have the product feature documents that you were issued with as part of the sales process? Those might help out.

countyourmoney

I think he does, what happens though if it was a verbal assurance and small print states otherwise?

Aegis

countyourmoney wrote: »

I think he does, what happens though if it was a verbal assurance and small print states otherwise?

Well, the product's key features (including any capital guarantees) won't be in the small print, they'll be in a very clear bit of text on the page. Unfortunately this written document is all the evidence that you have backing you up, and any verbal assurances wouldn't be admissible as evidence in a complaint about suitability. You need to see what the key features states and work with that.

countyourmoney

Ok thanks for your help, will read it in detail

dunstonh

I think he does, what happens though if it was a verbal assurance and small print states otherwise?

Verbal evidence is hard to prove. The reason being that you could make up anything after the event (and people do I'm afraid). So, documentation is key. However, a complaint could still be made but if the documentation has all the required risk warnings and the portfolio is not a big jump above previous investments held, it is unlikely that a complaint would be upheld.

It also needs to be noted that Barclays sell a lot of guaranteed equity bonds which do show a variable valuation in the interim period but on maturity have a capital guarnatee. If he has one of these then he has the guarantee he expected.