ISA

christmaspudding81

I need some advice.

Upon a divorce I discovered my husband had taken out an ISA for £60k in my name.

I don't know how - could he do this without my presence ?  

Now he is accusing me of financial dishonestly in family court saying I knew about it and withheld it from the family court.

His financial advisor said I must have signed something - shouldn't I have been protected as a vulnerable customer ie contacted to confirm etc as in my mind he may have said it was something else and mislead me.

They know now and said I did on the phone but I didn't unless it was someone else for him.  It just seemed to easy to do and I know it's not a loan but it was without my consent.

Is all they need an witnessed signature?  I am not blaming them it just doesn't seem right he has managed to do this and lying about it in court to say it was mine and I hid it as financial misconduct.

christmaspudding81

I meant an unwitnessed signiture ?

tacpot12

You should be able to get a copy of the signature from the institution that opened the ISA. You should also ask them what forms of identity they accepted from you. If you haven't reported this as fraud to the institution yet, there should be not data protection reasons that you cannot be given your 'own' information. 

You should also consider where the money came from. The instituation may be able to confirm which bank paid it.

As it was opened on the phone, you should asl for a copy of the recording from the time you opened the account. 

You should be considering a complaint to the institution, but you haven't lost money, so the complaint will be more about compensation for the inconvenience of having to prove you know nothing about this money. 

Exodi

Most ISA accounts can be opened online, so I wouldn't waste time thinking you'll find the smoking gun in the form of a wet signature.

As part of opening the account, ID would need to be submitted, but again, that doesn't prove anything.

As @tacpot12 suggests, as you are the owner of the account, I'd speak with the provider to gain access to the account, and then see what bank account is linked, or ask them what account paid into the ISA.

In a way, if it's linked to his bank account, it's good he told you if you were genuinely unaware of it. £60k to be added to the divorce pot.

mebu60

£60k? The maximum contribution is £20k per tax year so that implies at least three years contributions? When was the divorce? When was the ISA opened? 

That's also a lot of money to put into your name if the intention was just to accuse you of hiding financial assets in a divorce. That accusation could've been made with a lot smaller amount of money, especially given he's not going to get all of it back (assuming he was the source of it). 

eskbanker

christmaspudding81 said:

...shouldn't I have been protected as a vulnerable customer...

Are you able and willing to expand on this, e.g. did he have any authority to act on your behalf and/or would financial institutions have been expected to know about your vulnerable status?

saajan_12

Where did the money come from - did you not see £20k x 3 years disappear from your other current / savings accounts? 

Re someone opening it without your consent
This feels a futile avenue to explore - they can be opened online in a few clicks, so not signing anything is irrelevant and will be harder to prove who clicked. The money would have to be deposited over at least 3 years, so its a long game if it was just to blame you for witholding, and risky for husband given the money would be in your name. Meanwhile you could have done it some time ago and forgotten? 

I'd focus on just making it clear there was no intent to decieve, and split the money per the rest of your asset split, so you can move on. 

Exodi

mebu60 said:

£60k? The maximum contribution is £20k per tax year so that implies at least three years contributions? When was the divorce? When was the ISA opened? 

That's also a lot of money to put into your name if the intention was just to accuse you of hiding financial assets in a divorce. That accusation could've been made with a lot smaller amount of money, especially given he's not going to get all of it back (assuming he was the source of it). 

Yeah this was my first thought also but I worry I'm overly cynical.

Personally I think the situation only makes sense if she was informed and agreeable, though I accept she may not have been fully aware of what an ISA was. That said, we're not talking about a £60k loan that was taken out in her name without her full understanding, we're talking about £60k put in her name as savings.

It's most likely the OP's ex-husband had exhausted his own annual ISA allowance and used the OP's. I expect there was either an inheritance or the OP's ex-husband is a very high earner because it suggests £120k+ was put in savings by him over a 3 year period. Did the OP not suspect that their combined financial disclosures seemed a bit thin?

It doesn't really make sense that he would hide it from the OP, as if the OP was truly unaware and it was his plan all along, he could have withdrawn it after the divorce in secret as well. Instead, unprompted, he draws attention to it's existence. 

If the intention was to point score or to throw doubt on the OP's credibility in court, not only would it be an absolutely galaxy brain 4D chess tactic to come up with 3+ years ago, it didn't need to cost £60k, as @mebu60 said, the same thing could have been down for far less.

Likewise, it doesn't follow that the OP would lie about their knowledge of it - as they would know that their ex-husband knows about it, so they'd never get away with hiding it.