Mis-sold stocks and Shares

[Deleted User]

bally912 wrote: »

my uncle is very sketchy on the full ins and out...
I believe initially it made a profit...
He's unsure as to what the risk was laid down as....
he hasn't looked into the what ifs had he left his money in....

he's not fully sure what his money was invested in...

Oh dear.
All these factors would need to be addressed in any complaint, you can't just complain solely on the basis of (poor) performance.

antrobus wrote: »

I lost money when I decided to sell against the advice I was given isn't a reason.

Agreed.

Nearlyold

f you say no claim firm can obtain money in such circumstance can you elaborate in what way these firms do have successful claims solely in regards mis sold stocks/shares.

It is possible to succefully complain on the basis that an investment risk profile was totally out of kilter with the customers attitude to risk. However I would expect your uncles attitude to risk as recorded on the fact find and duplicated in the reason why letter will match that of the investment made.

tacpot12

[QUOTE=bally912;75099366... The advisor told him to keep his money in but in the end he pulled out of it.
[/QUOTE]

So your uncle decided to cut his losses when the market dipped. How is this any fault of the advisor that sold him the investment?

The investment advice sounds entirely reasonable, based on the very limited information you have given. I have most of my pension provision invested in shares that invest in a variety of businesses. He will need some evidence of the misselling if he is to win any compensation.

You are basically arguing that certain investments cannot be sold to people who cannot demonstrate a high degree of financial capability. The current regulatory framework already includes this provision, but the majority of products are designed to be bought by retail customers. So the products and the advice caters for this. Did your Uncle buy a high-risk product that was designed for a sophisticated investor? If so, you may have a claim, but if he bought a retail product, and did not understand the risks even after they were explained to him, then he only has himself to blame.

The claim company is likely to inflate the chance of success to get him to sign up. If he does so, they will evaluate the claim and only proceed if he has valid evidence. They are very likely to settle the claim for just a little more than amount of the fees he has agreed to pay them, meaning he will get little compensation. They won't do any work for him that doesn't result in an increase of their fee. If you really want to help you uncle, evaluate the evidence he has that he was mis-sold objectively using MSE for advice on this, only approach an claims company if you think he has a good claim, and only agree to pay them a percentage of what they win in compensation. Don't pay them a flat fee.

I wouldn't advice you try to manage the claim yourself as you don't know the regulatory frameworks involved. A good claims company will.

[Deleted User]

I agree with almost all of your post, other than the last sentence!

Nearlyold

Warren Buffet says buy and hold.

Exactly - If house prices fell, would most folks immediately sell their house?
I think not.

dunstonh

A handful of the banks made some widespread errors in their investment selection. Halifax investments are pretty rubbish but that is not a valid complaint reason as most bank investments are. However, Halifax investments tended to be relatively cautious. In fact, their largest seller was the Halifax cautious managed fund.

He had alot invested with the scheme and ultimately lost just over £10,000

Halifax have had no investment funds that have lost money over the long term. Just the usual short term negative periods that recovered inside 3-24 months.
We have had one in the last 6 weeks for example (markets down 12%)

The investments was group into several shopping outlets linked with the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield.

no. halifax have no such investment. However, some of their funds do have some property within them and its very possible that he lived near a property in their portfolio.

He's unsure as to what the risk was laid down as, it did happen around 2008 from what I can make out, he hasn't looked into the what ifs had he left his money in no (he's not fully sure what his money was invested in to do so!!!)

Probably doubled if left.

People only lose money on the stockmarket if they pull out when it goes down or they invest in unsuitable investments. Halifax have never retailed unsuitable/non-mainstream investments.

Nasqueron

If the value of the shares dropped and he panicked and ignored the advice to keep them for when they are back up again he's going to need to complain about miss-selling advice to himself.


The FTSE low point I think was around 4434 in 2008, give or take a bit, it's currently around 7036. A smart investor or one with luck would have bought shares in 2008 (or invested more in a S&S ISA) as the units would have been cheaper and obviously now worth a lot more.

fwor

If he still has the documentation that was provided by Halifax at the time of the investment, you should find a summary of the investments, some illustrations of possible growth rates, and the cost of the advice, plus warnings that the investment could return less and a description of the cooling-off period during which you can change your mind (on mine, this was 30 days).

To stand any chance of success, I suspect that you would need to have access to this level of detail (if not the original documents) and you would then need to show that their advice clearly did not align with his attitude to risk. Given that there doesn't seem to have been a requirement to document "attitude to risk" at the time, that's not going to be at all easy.

dunstonh

To stand any chance of success, I suspect that you would need to have access to this level of detail (if not the original documents) and you would then need to show that their advice clearly did not align with his attitude to risk. Given that there doesn't seem to have been a requirement to document "attitude to risk" at the time, that's not going to be at all easy.

Attitude to risk would have been on the factfind or standalone risk Q and recorded in the suitability letter (I think it was still called reason why letter back then).

At the end of the day, you never know what a bank is going to do in a complaint. However, as it has been more than 3 and 6 years from the events in question, they could decide to timebar the complaint.

I have heard the odd advert about investments but the actual uphold rate on investments is low. As are the overall volume on investment complaints.

Seva

I am looking into such a complaint currently, my post history will point to the details. I too invested & lost with the Halifax but in hindsight it was completely inappropriate for me to be offered an investment fund in the first place.

I was convinced in branch to put practically all my wealth into a Halifax investment account and a proportion of income. All I'd gone in to do was withdraw petty cash with id as my bank card had broke. I lost £500 on a £25k investment over 2 years.

I would like help drafting my complaint and avoiding a 40% fee if any forum user would wish to help. I will publish the complaint here & its success and response letter unless NDA'd by Halifax. Anyone want to help me draft? This might be good for other have a go hero's who want to avoid expensive fee's from 3rd party.