ISA funds stolen?

MarmiteTwiglet

In 2006 my husband and I held an investment portfolio to pay school fees. Every year we each moved the maximum allowable amount from the joint funds into an ISA in each of our names, so there were three portfolios. The understanding was that the ISA's would only be liquidated if we needed money and had no other source of funds. In 2008 we separated and advised the brokers asking them to send us both copies of all paperwork. We divorced under Scottish law in 2012.

In December 2009 my ex-husband asked the brokers to "transfer the cash in the portfolio" into his bank account to pay school fees. I was copied in on that email. This had not happened before but relations had become tense and I assumed that because of that my ex-husband was being careful. I never thought he was meaning anything except the funds in the joint portfolio since there was no mention of an ISA; he had always dealt with the joint portfolio. The brokers transferred the cash in the joint portfolio and the cash in my ISA into his personal bank account. I had never given my authority or agreement to this, nor was I asked to do so. (We had a substantial amount of joint cash elsewhere at the time)

The Financial Ombudsman has decided that the brokers did nothing wrong because the FO sees it as one portfolio (I have rejected the FO decision), but it was three portfolios and we each received two statements, the joint funds one and the personal ISA one. This was the first time there had been any funds removed from my ISA. I think that the brokers should not have encashed my ISA on my ex-husband's instructions without referring to me. I have tried to get the money back from the brokers but they refused. My ex-husband will not begin to consider paying me back. I cannot afford to go to court. I am struggling to find any legislation about ISA's and ownership of ISA's and who has the authority to liquidate them. If anyone can help and or knows anything about the legal ownership of ISA's, and who can instruct on an ISA I would really appreciate some advice.

Thanks.

colsten

If you are dissatisfied with a FOS ruling, your only way to challenge it is to go to Court.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/answers/complaints_a12.html

As you say you cannot afford to go to Court, you might wish to consider applying for legal aid, assuming you qualify. You would obviously need to be 100% certain that a Court would rule in your favour as otherwise you might find yourself with bills you will find difficult to pay.

jimjames

An ISA is exactly that - an Individual Savings account.

You cannot have a joint ISA so if someone else has accessed your ISA then the bank or broker has made an error.

The only person who can access your ISA is you unless you have Power of Attorney or similar agreement.

talexuser

You can't have a joint ISA. If the husband moved money out of your ISA without your permission, the institution made a mistake and it is strange the FOS should agree with this. If however your husband was able to do it with your login details (which you knew he had), or you had previously given permission for him run the account with the broker, that might explain why the FOS ruled against you.
Depending on the amount it might be worth considering the small claims court, since fees are relatively low, if the claim is up to 10K, but again we would need to know why the FOS ruled against you before advising to spend another penny on this.

atush

AS said the FO is actually wrong, your ISA is a personal acct and can never be accessed and money moved by another person. Unless a said, you signed a POA. Even if you use the same broker as yur husband does for his ISA and a joint acct. I assume they all 3 have different acct numbers


Who was the ISa with? File a complaint to them, and ask your ISa be reinstated.

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts

"You can’t hold an ISA with or on behalf of someone else."

The ISA was the OP's alone.

Unless she had given her husband POA or authority to access and control the account, I fail to see how it could be legal for the broker to transfer her account on any authority other than her own?

Archi_Bald

atush wrote: »

AS said the FO is actually wrong, your ISA is a personal acct and can never be accessed and money moved by another person.

It would be horrendous if the FOS didn't know that.

atush

Well is seems as if they dont, having turned down the complaint.

cloud_dog

xylophone wrote: »

Unless she had given her husband POA or authority to access and control the account

I expect this is the fact of the matter and why the broker did 'nothing wrong'

jimjames

atush wrote: »

Well is seems as if they dont, having turned down the complaint.

Or the complaint was not about that or not sufficiently detailed

Voyager2002

I'm not sure what the issue is, TBH. The funds were held for the sake of the children, and presumably that is what they were spent on. Terms like 'stolen' are not really appropriate when it is just a transfer of money between parents.