Invest reclaim

ROBJ

I had a £50k inheritance when 19, happy days 😁(1994ish)and sought advice from my natwest bank on the best way to invest, an advisor came around to my mums and I told him I was going to travel America for a year after college I was advised to put my all money in a investment portfolio which I could use the interest from, after a year I returned to the UK, met my future wife and found employment only using the money in emergencies.. But then markets crashed which wiped out a lot of the funds, I was then told as I had under 10k they had to close the portfolio and within a few years the last 8k had all gone I think it all lasted around 10 years. A few years ago I saw advertised a reclaim service and called up, they told me it was too long ago but the rules change for older claims and they would call back which they did last year. My claim would now be a few months before the valid time but there was a chance of success they would do all the forms and had specialist that can deal with it all. However they can only apply once and if successful they would take near 50%. If this is a one shot deal and the date may move again so my claim would be in the correct timeline is it worth waiting? I did a successful ppi claim from the msm info a few years back and was wondering if anyone had any advice?

Many thanks

System

This is nothing like PPI and the companies claiming you can get compensation because you lose out on an investment are chancers or they're going to get people to sign up, do very little because there's nothing that can be done, then present you with a nice big bill for all the work they claim to have done to date to try to claim on your behalf. So far I've only heard of one company advertising and claiming they can get compensation for people who invested and lost money and that was on Heart 80s DAB radio station, I've not heard or seen adverts anywhere else. If it was like PPI all the ambulance chasers would be piling in. You'd also see articles on here too but you don't.

When you open an investment and fund it you are told it is an investment with risk and the value can fall as well as rise. Just because there's a crash which wipes out 50% of your money in 12 months or even all of your money overnight is not reason for compensation. The only way you'd stand any chance of compensation is if you were sold a product which you were told would guarantee 100% a profit.

Malthusian

Tarambor wrote: »

The only way you'd stand any chance of compensation is if you were sold a product which you were told would guarantee 100% a profit.

Not at all. The OP would be compensated if he was recommended an investment that was unsuitable and made a loss as a result, regardless of how it was promoted to him. E.g. if NatWest stuck all his money in penny shares.

If the OP's investment actually fell by 50% in 12 months in the 90s there is a high chance it was unsuitable.

However that in itself would be extraordinary. The OP's post suggests it is possible that it didn't, and the reason the money is all gone is that he spent it.

If the OP cashed in shares or funds at a low point and spent the money that is not NatWest's fault.

It is very possible that the OP is time-barred, as a complaint has to be made either six years from when the loss arose or three years from when the OP should reasonably have known about it. The FOS has been known to disregard these rules from time to time but it sounds like the ambulance chaser is trying it on.

The OP should not contact the ambulance chaser any further, as if he did have a valid complaint, FOS complaints are very straightforward and there is no reason to give up a huge chunk of his compensation so he can reduce his chances of getting any. Ambulance chasers have a lower success rate than people who submit their complaints directly, as ambulance chasers tend to submit copy-and-paste complaints instead of information specific to their mark's case.

In the absence of more information on exactly what the OP was invested in, which would show whether or not these investments might have been unsuitable, pursuing this is likely to be a waste of the OP's time due to time bar rules and the lack of evidence that he has a valid complaint even if it wasn't time barred.

As Tarambor says, this is nothing like PPI. With PPI the banks paid out on claims they knew were fraudulent because it was cheaper to pay up than dispute them. This does not apply to any other financial complaint.

Albermarle

from my natwest bank on the best way to invest, an advisor came around to my mums

Maybe proves the point mentioned many times on this forum not to take financial advice from bank salespeople ?

dunstonh

Whilst bank funds were typically quite poor, they were pretty much mainstream. Not specialist. (so UK equity, US equity, Euro etc as well as the far more commonly used multi-asset funds)

But then markets crashed which wiped out a lot of the funds, I was then told as I had under 10k they had to close the portfolio and within a few years the last 8k had all gone I think it all lasted around 10 years.

Natwest had no investment funds that were capable of such as loss during that period. Not even close. So, this would suggest your draw rate was unsustainable.

A few years ago I saw advertised a reclaim service and called up, they told me it was too long ago but the rules change for older claims and they would call back which they did last year.

There has been no change in the rules. So, that is spurious. However, there have been a couple of cases recently on historic advice that made the financial press where the FOS upheld the complaint. These scenarios are rare. hence why the made the press. However, some CMCs have seen these and have decided that with PPI ending, putting in historic complaints where documentation is likely to be limited or even non-existent is a good way to go.

The fact they make the press when the FOS uphold one indicates just how unusual it is to succeed.

In most cases, the 3 and 6 year timebar rule could be applied.

The 2017/18 annual FOS figures show 362 historic complaints were made 7 were abandoned by the consumer. 207 were timebarred and 148 were considered and 28 upheld. The FOS show "historic advice" complaints as those being about advice made more than 15 years ago. That is about every area. Not just investments.

My claim would now be a few months before the valid time

What valid time? Are they referring to the PPI deadline? That has nothing to do with non-PPI cases. There are no other deadlines apart from the 3/6 year rule has been in place since the late 80s.

There is another potential issue here. Some CMCs are crowfunding litigation. They need as many people as they can to sign up for complaint as they can advertise their crowdfunding as having xx,xxx number of people putting in "claims". By the time the whole thing collapses, the money will be gone and the crowdfunding investors will lose the lot. So, they are quite happy to generate complaints with little chance of success because they need the volume. The fact you appear to have been lied to by the CMC could hint that this CMC is one of those dodgy ones.

If the bank did invest 100% equity then its worth looking at the 90s in terms of performance.
There wasn't any major loss periods in the 90s until 1998. There were several 10% loss periods but all quickly recovered. e.g. 1994 was negative (-10%) but 1995 was a boom year (up 20%). 1994 to 1997 would have seen the investments grow 40% Late 97 had a 10% loss period but quickly recovered. The biggest loss period was in 98 at 21% but it had fully recovered within 3 months. markets then boomed until 2000 by going up another 40%. 2000-2002 saw a major decline during the dot.com period which would have wiped out virtually all the gains

That is assuming 100% global equity. Pretty much the highest risk option that Natwest would have had to offer. It doesnt reflect the losses indicated by the OP. So, its more likely the money was drawn at an unsustainable rate.

AnotherJoe

OP I suspect you had a lot of "emergencies" to use it up like that. I invested through those periods, lost a lot of money, stayed invested and am far far beyond where i started. However i wasn't spending any of it.

Only real way to understand your situation in detail would be to understand the funds/shares and withdrawal and charge history