Poor Investment Product Performance. Any recompense?

Bostonerimus1

If you are dissatisfied then I think you just have to put this down to experience. There are lots of "professionals" selling expensive investments to expats that might perform poorly. These people range from the truly dishonest to the people who sincerely believe that they are worth their fees and that their bespoke products are useful. The best protection the consumer has is a degree of skepticism and some education. I was once contacted by the "de*ere Group" (I left out one letter) who tried to sell me expat investments and gave me information I knew to be misleading.

wmb194

I've never heard of Hansard Global plc but apparently it's a London listed Isle of Man company - LSE:HSD, £66m market cap - and its, "solutions" appear to be regulated in either Labuan (Malaysia) or the Bahamas.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/HSD/hansard-global-plc/company-page

https://www.hansard.com/about/

EthicsGradient

Seller said:

Sadly my IFA, recommended by a work colleague, was and still is based in the Middle East, where I was working at the time and is long gone. The policy above can only be claimed when I'm 70. Surely that was bad advice? Is there any claim I can make directly against Hansard?

Why is that "surely" bad advice? We don't know your circumstances (or your current age, or your age when the IFA got you to invest). We don't actually know what the lines on the graph are - I'd guess that blue is "amount invested", since that would explain its growth and then flat line; is red "what Hansard estimates it'll be worth when you turn 70"?

Seller

Close. the blue is the amount invested and the red is fund value at the date on the x axis.. I’m 64 now so will turn 70 in 2029

Qyburn

How is it that the initial value is around twice the amount you put in, was that a signing up bonus?

Was the fact that you can't access until age 70 made clear in the original offer or advice?

grumbler

It's not twice. The scale starts at £5K, not 0.

Qyburn

Fair enough, but it's still higher.

EthicsGradient

Seller said:

Close. the blue is the amount invested and the red is fund value at the date on the x axis.. I’m 64 now so will turn 70 in 2029

OK, but if it's impossible to withdraw before you're 70, then there isn't really a value that can be put on it at those dates. Are you sure it's not a value allowing for an early withdrawal penalty?

As far as compensation for misselling goes, it seems to me too that it depends on the laws of the Middle Eastern country where you dealt with the financial advisor. If the Hansard product(s) locked you in for about 12 years (either absolutely, or with an early withdrawal penalty), that's not "bad" on the part of Hansard; your advisor should have explained it to you, though (morally; legally would depend on the country's laws).

The performance of the underlying investments may be poor if some was invested in government bond funds. Take, for instance, a Euro government bond ETF:
iShares Core € Govt Bond UCITS ETF (SEGA.MI) Stock Price, News, Quote & History - Yahoo Finance
in the period from about April 2017 to Oct 2019, when you were investing, the price was between 120 and 130 euros; after Nov 21, it has steadily decreased to about 104 euros.