Investment and my bank

dunstonh

Tackkers said:

jimjames said:

itsme999 said:

I am not happy with this situation, what are my options? 
I am thinking of the lines of complaining to the bank and say either full refund or I move bank, can I go further to the FCA? Or I have no case?

If you think you were wrongly advised then you may have a case but it sounds from your first paragraph that the salesman was very clear that it was a long term investment and that it would go down as well as up which might make such a complaint less viable.

But he's right it's not like Bitcoin which could go down 30% in a day.

Whilst I'm in agreement that the OP has a slim chance of any successful claim I am surprised from comments as to what is deemed to be a long term investment.
Frequently posters are informed relentlessly, and largely by prolific posters that, minus 5 years is too short for investing it needs to be for 7-10 years, preferably longer, and here on topic they're hammering home that 3-5 years a long term investment. Hilarious!

There is no official definition of short, medium or long.   It will vary with individuals and firms.  For us, 3-7 years is short term, 8-15 is medium term, 16+ years is long term.

Ideally, people should look to invest for at least an economic cycle.  That is 10-15 years.  But historically the vast majority of 5 year periods have been positive.   That is why you often see the "minimum of 5 years" mentioned.

If the OP was told 3-5 years was long term then nobody timescale definitions are going to match that as long term.    That is a missale.   However, like the others, I suspect none of the documentation makes reference to 3-5 years.

Thrugelmir

Tackkers said:

jimjames said:

itsme999 said:

I am not happy with this situation, what are my options? 
I am thinking of the lines of complaining to the bank and say either full refund or I move bank, can I go further to the FCA? Or I have no case?

If you think you were wrongly advised then you may have a case but it sounds from your first paragraph that the salesman was very clear that it was a long term investment and that it would go down as well as up which might make such a complaint less viable.

But he's right it's not like Bitcoin which could go down 30% in a day.

Whilst I'm in agreement that the OP has a slim chance of any successful claim I am surprised from comments as to what is deemed to be a long term investment.
Frequently posters are informed relentlessly, and largely by prolific posters that, minus 5 years is too short for investing it needs to be for 7-10 years, preferably longer, and here on topic they're hammering home that 3-5 years a long term investment. Hilarious!

We don't know what the funds are invested in. Might well not be 100% pure equities. Bonds while performing poorly might well provide positive returns  (albeit lower than inflation in the short term). 

eskbanker

OP's information about the term was at least slightly inconsistent - if the manager really did initially offer advice (or more likely guidance) that the suggested investment was suitable for 3-5 years but then changed tack to it being a genuinely long term investment, IMHO that's another reason for an inexperienced investor to cry foul, especially if there's clear written evidence of this:

itsme999 said:

He told me it's a medium term investment 3-5 years.

[...]

I emailed the manager after one month, his response was: "XXX Invest is a long term investment as we discussed at length.

dunstonh

A lot of the banks now do not offer advice.  They have a guided process a bit similar to the robo providers.  i.e. along the lines of reading a screen in front of the person and picking from the available options.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I've never take advice from a bank 'Financial Advisor', they only offer their own products, rather make my own choices.

tebbins

You have no case for an investment having volatility and going up and down in value.
However there is potentially a mis-selling case for the bank pestering you about this and a case about the investment's suitability - however ultimately you chose to listen, you chose to do business with the bank and not tell them to cease and desist or put their numbers on the TPS, you chose to accept their offer.

london21

If it had gone up in value would you have complained?

investments can go up and go down.

Next time if someone offers you financial advice/sale  and you do not want it just say No and if they persist block number and make a formal complaint. 

itsme999

Albermarle said:

 Or I have no case?
No, there will be the following statements ( or something similar ) prominent in the literature provided.
'Return of your Capital is not guaranteed'
' Investments can go down as well as up'

Personally I would not be happy about a bank pestering me to invest and would probably avoid the bank in question in future, once the investment had run its course of 5 years minimum. 

It's one of the major banks. Several managers did the same in the past before him  and always said no but this guy kept calling and emailing, didn't give up.

itsme999

The_Fat_Controller said:

My ISA is down 3% this morning alone but I am not worried.

There were obviously discussions about the investment as detailed by the manager's reply and the bank cannot be responsible for market volatility.

Now that the funds are in a tax-free wrapper I would advise sitting on your hands and see where you are in 3 to 5 years time.

I don't think you have any case for a complaint.

But planning to move all my accounts to a different, at least to make a point, it's all I can do, been with them for over 25 years.

itsme999

Daliah said:

itsme999 said:

I am thinking of the lines of complaining to the bank and say either full refund or I move bank, can I go further to the FCA? Or I have no case?

Unless you received actual financial advice (doesn't sound as if you did) which was incorrect, 

Doesn't  emailing and phone calls to invest constitute actual financial advice when I didn't ask for?
Some of his famous lines : " your money in the bank is not earning enough, rates are down, interest rate are much lower than inflation....etc". And all this when I never asked for any sort of advice.