Prudential Stole My Money!

mania112

It's got nothing to do with finance, it's about understanding English.

The sentence says: you will be switched into a cash fund so that they can guarantee the value for 30 days.

It was spoken and not written, but had there been a pause (or a comma) [..guarantee the fund, for 30 days] you could have grounds for a dispute. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

mania112

...Chalk this up as another one where 'if only you had one of them really expensive advisers to help you'....

bmm78

FOS (with all the available evidence) concluded that the words meant the value was guaranteed for 30 days.

"Fair and Reasonable" works both ways. It is completely unfair to expect Prudential to:

• Apply a fund switch without a client's consent based on a separate transaction not going ahead
  
• Take responsibility for the effects of the client's actions, despite not giving advice
  
• Pro-actively contact the client in the event that the client had incorrectly assumed the switch would happen
  
• Assume that the client would not read any statements issued to him, and find some other way of making him aware of the situation
  
• Fully restore the client to a best-case scenario position 5+ years after the event

dunstonh

I would suggest that the majority of the non-financial general public had been told that their fund was being switched into cash for 30 days then they would probably also assume that it would be switched back after 30 days

You are mixing up two different things. The annuity rate is guaranteed for 30 days with the fund value. However, the cash fund switch is not linked to those 30 days.

atush

gadgetmind wrote: »

Cash funds won't, bond funds will be a little more volatile, and equity funds massively more volatile. Annual swings would easily be 30% or 50% for equity heavy funds.

Some of my 'funds' were up over 30% last year

atush

The OP has no claim here.

They changed their mind but did not change the instruction back into equities.

Go on, sue and lose more money if you like?

bigadaj

atush wrote: »

Some of my 'funds' were up over 30% last year

You really should stop your habit of stating this or similar, of course some investments will shoot up but many will be slow and steady, and others will fall in the short or even medium term. The overall value and return of your portfolio is the important thing, and even then not over one year but over the long term.

Statements such as yours encourage inexperienced investors to time the market and follow fashion investing, with almost inevitable poor results, long term equity returns are likely to be higher than cash, but there will be volatility and their average returns are in the order of inflation plus 4-5%. If you do better than this then great, but don't rely on it, it's a little like saying I can draw down my investments at 10% per annum because the return last year is 30%, it's not good.

somethingcorporate

OP, you made a huge (and stupid) assumption and never bothered to check.

The fault here lies with you, as has been pointed out to you a number of times on this thread.

No, you won't win and the transcript doesn't even support your position - you're reading something into it that isn't there.

atush

I never said I got 30% every year. And yes, some people can be stupid but not sure I should change how I think because of it?

I lost 10% another year. Big deal. I think we are trying to say to people you don't get any return if your money isn't invested, even 4%. Like the OP if you are out of the market (and don't bother to check for 8 years) you are not making anything.

Ozzuk

I was going to side with you slightly after your first post as the wording was ambiguous. However...when you posted what the agent said then IMO you don't have a leg to stand on. He says they are switching you to a cash fund. He then says its too protect your money from variations for 30 days, he doesn't say it stays there for 30 days. I'd have read that I have 30 days to decide what to do then I need to tell them which fund to put it in.

Your first post says they agreed to transfer money into the fund for 30days. The statements are not the same. You assumed wrongly and unfortunately its cost you.