Mis sold Maxi ISA

sima1972

Hi all,

First time poster so please be gentle.

My parents are retired and recently told me they had an ISA for my kids which is losing money. Just a bit of background, my dad was recently diagnosed with Alzhiemer's and my mum is only just coming to terms with managing family finance. When all comes to all it looks like they were sold a maxi isa by Abbey national without realising there was a stocks and shares element to it. All I want to know is if there is a case to claim as a mis sold financial product and how to go about it?

Any general pointers and help would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance

Simon

dunstonh

My parents are retired and recently told me they had an ISA for my kids which is losing money.

How is it losing money? Most investments zig zag in value and will have periods of gains and losses. So, it will be a zig zag line with periods less than what you pay in. It would not be expected to be a line of continual decline.

my dad was recently diagnosed with Alzhiemer's and my mum is only just coming to terms with managing family finance. When all comes to all it looks like they were sold a maxi isa by Abbey national without realising there was a stocks and shares element to it.

Maxi ISAs havent been around for some years now. So, this must go back a few years. So, how was it mis-sold?

All I want to know is if there is a case to claim as a mis sold financial product and how to go about it?

You havent given any reason for complaint. So, it is difficult for us to comment unless you do. So, what is the complaint?

opinions4u

You could ask the sellers to explain why the product sale was suitable.

If it's an advised sale then there will be records. If it wasn't sold under advice then there's almost certainly nowhere to go.

sima1972

Sorry if I weasnt clear, the ISA was sold about 9 years ago, thie issue is they both were under the impression it was a cash ISA. There is no way my parents would have dabbled in stocks and shares as they are both not risk takers. The value of the fund is down to £1700 after putting in in excess of £7000.
As you can imagine they are distraught

sima1972

Basically my parents sat down with an advisor at Abey national and bought after recieving their advice

sima1972

The account is just sitting there at the moment and has had no money invested in it for 2 years or so as they had to stop making contributions due to financial circumstances

Hooloovoo

sima1972 wrote: »

Just a bit of background, my dad was recently diagnosed with Alzhiemer's and my mum is only just coming to terms with managing family finance.

How recently is recently?

If the product was bought 9 years ago I doubt this background is relevant.

As opinions4u said, see if you can obtain copies of the advice provided.

sima1972

Just over a year ago. I will try to get the information you suggest but I am concearned as The Abbey national are no longer and the acccount is now run by Santander?

Hooloovoo

sima1972 wrote: »

Just over a year ago.

In which case I doubt there is any relevance to financial products taken out 8 years before.

I will try to get the information you suggest but I am concearned as The Abbey national are no longer and the acccount is now run by Santander?

Do you have any information about the product at all? What is was called, what it invested in etc.? The loss you describe is huge, there must be more to this than just a poor investment performance.

opinions4u

Have you checked to see if there have been any withdrawals, either as income or lump sums?

What's the name of the fund or funds?

jimjames

sima1972 wrote: »

Sorry if I weasnt clear, the ISA was sold about 9 years ago, thie issue is they both were under the impression it was a cash ISA. There is no way my parents would have dabbled in stocks and shares as they are both not risk takers. The value of the fund is down to £1700 after putting in in excess of £7000.
As you can imagine they are distraught

Any fund that has dropped from £7000 to £1700 in the last 9 years has got to be some very high risk or as suggested they have withdrawn money. Over the last 9 years even a FTSE tracker would be breaking even and even making money once dividends were included.

The key info we need is to find out which fund the ISA is invested in. An ISA is just a wrapper, it is what is inside it that matters and the fund could be one of thousands so without knowing that it is hard to answer.