Mis-sold ISA claim - need a solicitor or not?

flakey321

Hi,
In the late 90s after my father died some of the money was invested for myself and sister by our bank in a high risk Stocks and Shares ISA without any consultation as to our circumstances (we were both young and on low paid jobs) and it performed very poorly. My sister has successfully received a compensation claim going through a high profile solicitor and so i'm looking at claiming too. I know for PPI there was usually no need to pay a third party, is this the same for a mis-sold ISA claim or does it need a bit more expertise to get a successful outcome? My sisters solicitors are taking a massive chunk - 45% so if I can avoid this i'd certainly like to.
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

eskbanker

It won't be comparable to PPI, in that the scale of that particular issue meant that information about claiming was simple and widespread, and banks were generally receptive to claims, in the knowledge of the extent of the problem, i.e. resistance was futile.

A successful missale claim for investment advice requires more extensive preparation, but if your sister has been through it already with legal assistance, then is she able to share the basis of the claim with you?  Poor performance in itself isn't relevant  - you need to demonstrate the lack of fact-finding at the time of the advice, and to overcome the argument that this was too long ago to act on....

Edit: out of curiosity, what was the money actually invested in?  There have been a couple of major crashes over that 25(ish) year period but the majority of years have been positive and most diversified investments will have done well overall, so how are you quantifying poor performance, and against what benchmark?

dunstonh

My sisters solicitors are taking a massive chunk - 45% so if I can avoid this i'd certainly like to.

That is because statistically, it is more likely to fail than succeed.  So, she is cross-subsidising all the failed complaints that cost money.   

It is a waste of money as well as the same complaints team at the bank would deal with the complaint whether it came in from your sister directly or via a third party.  The outcome would be the same.   If anything, the uphold rate where CMCs are used is actually lower than personalised complaints.

Esbanker is correct that a PPI complaint was easy (CMCs would often give no reasons and just add your name and address to a spreadsheet with dozens of others each day telling the bank to look into the sale).  With an investment complaint, you need to give details and an explanation as to what was done wrong.   Losing money does not mean it was missold.  Poor performance is not grounds for complaint.  Bank investments regularly had poor performance relative to their peers.   Complaints about poor performance won't get you anywhere.     The complaint has to be about suitability of the investment.   You are complaining that it is unsuitable.   So, tell the bank why you think it was unsuitable.   You dont need war and peace.  The more concise and simple the better.      Along the lines of  dear bank,   I wish to complain about the sale of the investments in <year/date>.   I believe the advice I was given was unsuitable for the following reasons:   (then bullet point your reasons).   That is basically it. 

flakey321

dunstonh said:

My sisters solicitors are taking a massive chunk - 45% so if I can avoid this i'd certainly like to.

That is because statistically, it is more likely to fail than succeed.  So, she is cross-subsidising all the failed complaints that cost money.   

It is a waste of money as well as the same complaints team at the bank would deal with the complaint whether it came in from your sister directly or via a third party.  The outcome would be the same.   If anything, the uphold rate where CMCs are used is actually lower than personalised complaints.

Esbanker is correct that a PPI complaint was easy (CMCs would often give no reasons and just add your name and address to a spreadsheet with dozens of others each day telling the bank to look into the sale).  With an investment complaint, you need to give details and an explanation as to what was done wrong.   Losing money does not mean it was missold.  Poor performance is not grounds for complaint.  Bank investments regularly had poor performance relative to their peers.   Complaints about poor performance won't get you anywhere.     The complaint has to be about suitability of the investment.   You are complaining that it is unsuitable.   So, tell the bank why you think it was unsuitable.   You dont need war and peace.  The more concise and simple the better.      Along the lines of  dear bank,   I wish to complain about the sale of the investments in <year/date>.   I believe the advice I was given was unsuitable for the following reasons:   (then bullet point your reasons).   That is basically it. 

That's really sound advice, thanks. And yes, with you on the performance side of it - my sister's in the end actually ended up making a reasonable amount of money but it was the way it was sold that was really the issue.

masonic

flakey321 said:

dunstonh said:

My sisters solicitors are taking a massive chunk - 45% so if I can avoid this i'd certainly like to.

That is because statistically, it is more likely to fail than succeed.  So, she is cross-subsidising all the failed complaints that cost money.   

It is a waste of money as well as the same complaints team at the bank would deal with the complaint whether it came in from your sister directly or via a third party.  The outcome would be the same.   If anything, the uphold rate where CMCs are used is actually lower than personalised complaints.

Esbanker is correct that a PPI complaint was easy (CMCs would often give no reasons and just add your name and address to a spreadsheet with dozens of others each day telling the bank to look into the sale).  With an investment complaint, you need to give details and an explanation as to what was done wrong.   Losing money does not mean it was missold.  Poor performance is not grounds for complaint.  Bank investments regularly had poor performance relative to their peers.   Complaints about poor performance won't get you anywhere.     The complaint has to be about suitability of the investment.   You are complaining that it is unsuitable.   So, tell the bank why you think it was unsuitable.   You dont need war and peace.  The more concise and simple the better.      Along the lines of  dear bank,   I wish to complain about the sale of the investments in <year/date>.   I believe the advice I was given was unsuitable for the following reasons:   (then bullet point your reasons).   That is basically it.

That's really sound advice, thanks. And yes, with you on the performance side of it - my sister's in the end actually ended up making a reasonable amount of money but it was the way it was sold that was really the issue.

So a complaint about poor customer service experienced 20 years ago?