affinity takeover by Wealth & Work group

Malthusian

jbuchanangb wrote: »

In between all this surely there is some case to talk to the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, because you are not happy with what W@W have done.

Not until margaretsimpson has exhausted W@W's complaints procedure. And I'm not clear as to what the complaint would be. She agreed to allow W@W to "cash in" her investments - I assume in order to reinvest them in a discretionary managed portfolio - and following contact from a previous adviser has now changed her mind about it. Changing your mind is not cause for complaint.

If "cashing in" means that ISA allowances have been lost or unnecessary capital gains tax has been incurred then that *might* be cause for complaint, but there is not enough information in margaretsimpson's post to suggest that W@W have been that daft.

If she does make a complaint and is unhappy with W@W's response, then she could go to the Financial Ombudsman Service. I see no reason why the Financial Conduct Authority should intervene in what we've been told.

dunstonh

I have to concur. There appears to be no wrongdoing. Just a change of mind.

jbuchanangb

Thank you Malthusian & DunstonH for your clarifications. I am a naive investor. I understand very little about how to choose investments but what little I do understand is that the help a person such as me needs is from an IFA. That is why I smelt a rat when the rep from W@W refused to say that they were IFAs, and actually denied it.

I instructed OMW to discontinue deducting "Advisor Servicing Fees" from my and my wife's accounts, (paying them to Affinity) which at 1% was not an insignificant amount of money each month.
OMW continue to collect their "Platform Fees".
As the funds had only just (May 2016) been placed in "long-term" investments, meaning at least 5 years, the suggestion from W@W that I should cash them in and let them manage them seemed contrary to even the most basic financial advice for a naive person like me.

The irony is, that if W@W had not contacted me and insisted that I meet their new representative, I would have done nothing and they would still be getting their rake-off from OMW.

Jima

We had two meetings and a number phone calls before signing the forms to transfer to the Wealthatwork platform, however after some reading a few articles and this forum we have instructed them to put it on hold.
Customer service has been bad from the start, things only got moving after I complained about not having been contacted after the sale of Affinity. I see from their Christmas message that they have still not contacted many people after 7 months, I was obviously right to complain.
As we have received no service in 7 months and no review of my investments has taken place in this time (confirmed by the agent), I shall me asking for the refund of the 1% fee we pay for this service.

dunstonh

As we have received no service in 7 months and no review of my investments has taken place in this time (confirmed by the agent), I shall me asking for the refund of the 1% fee we pay for this service.

My understanding from the above comments is that they are DFMs and not IFAs. So, they are providing the service you are paying for.

jbuchanangb

If Jima's situation was anything like mine, W@W weren't providing any service. On Affinity's advice I had placed money in four accounts in the Old Mutual Wealth platform, in 18 different funds. Each fund being managed by its own fund manager and getting their rake-off through the difference between bid and offer prices as and when units bought and sold, OMW taking a "Platform management fee", and then another 1% being extracted and paid to "Affinity", now in the hands of Wealth at Work, who were doing exactly zilch.
I paid Affinity a tidy sum for the advice to put me in this situation, and as soon as I found out that W@W were not adding any value, and were angling for me to cash all the funds and let them take control, I sacked them and instructed OMW to cease deducting the "advisor servicing fee".