Is it just me, #323846

[tamaranth]

Have filled in and sent back client details that Financial Advice Co should have been telling *me*, together with a request for details of their compliance procedure which is not mentioned on their website.


"I cannot understand how you are worse off financially having had [Financial Advice Co] sort out your mortgage and invest you in a scheme that has made very good profits and is continuing to do so whilst you are trying to sell out of it.

I am seeking to "clear up" your position but if you do wish to make a formal complaint then I immediately have to cease all direct communications with you as dictated by our complaints procedure.

The contact details of our compliance officer is included below.

I will therefore make no further contact with you as I will assume that you are going to take this further.

Should you decide however to deal with the issue of sorting things out then please inform me of this and I will regain contact and move forward."

Now, is it just me or does that come across as patronising, (passive-)aggressive and unhelpful?

(A quick reminder of those facts:
- my Financial Advisor has emigrated and neither he nor anyone else mentioned this to me
- before Xmas I asked him to organise sale of Hypothetical Property
- it took me 5 months to work out that he was in the process of emigrating
- during which time all I got were stroppy emails
- and during which time various policy reviews were due
- they have NO RECORDS of my details because he took them with him. (Computer? hell no.)
- his boss, who I now deal with and who sent the warm-hearted missive above, is basically refusing to do anything unless I go in for a meeting.)
- despite the above, I still have nothing at all in writing to indicate current value of hypothetical property or whether they have done anything about selling it
- I am currently living beyond my means, partly due to anticipating income from HP sale, partly because of the many and varied pensions and insurance/assurance policies I hold.)

Comments

[incy.livejournal.com]

What are you trying to achieve/what is the result you want here?

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I want information in writing about the status of Hypothetical Property; information in writing about the other policies etc that they are managing for me; and ideally some compensation for the fees I paid them before cancelling the direct debit at the end of April due to complete lack of contact. An apology wouldn't go amiss either, I think they have behaved very unprofessionally.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Not just you.
And I find the idea that you engaged (I presume) Financial Advice Co to advise you, but financial advice person has taken your records either unbelievable or alarming, or both.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned, if Advisor has handed my 'case' to Company then Company should have records. Cannot believe how out of date their records are: address 2 yrs out of date, email 6 yrs out of date, no record at all of half the stuff they've done for me.

[lj_stowaway]

It's not just you. It looks from here as if they have been/are being almost unbelievably unprofessional and, when you seek to call them on it, trying to discourage you from pushing for better service by being as unpleasant as possible.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

They clearly don't know me at all* if they think that being unpleasant will do anything other than enrage me.

*spot the quote

IFA problems

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

Hi T,

This is not my main area of expertise but alarm bells are going off . One of the reasons dodgy people ask for meetings is because they don't want to leave a paper trail. To be fair, it is much harder to deal with a client you haven't met and lots of people like meetings because they don't like writing reports but it is unreasonable to insist that this is the only way to deal with it. Why are they insisting on having a meeting? Is it to do the Fact Find ?

You need to find out urgently whether your investment is FSA regulated. If it's an actual building, it probably isn't. If it's a property based unit trust unit, then it probably is. There are non FSA ways to pursue your claim but you really need to involve a competent professional adviser and do so now. The IFAs attached to the bigger legal and accountancy firms are usually on the level but are the most expensive. Failing that, it might be worth getting in touch with local trading standards people and CAB. If someone's done this to you, he's probably done it so several other people too.

A key issue may be tracing your funds. There are some primitive ways to do this via Companies House Direct which might be helpful here. Delay is not a good idea here.

If it's not FSA regulated, you still appear to have a well-founded procedural complaint relating to record keeping. However, the IFA is trying to rectify the problem . At least he isn't trying to bluff his way through ... have seen that one.

Hope this helps and best of luck .

Re: IFA problems

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Funny you should say that re not wanting to leave a paper trail -- my thoughts exactly! Luckily I have kept all my emails (even the unanswered ones) and much of the old paperwork. Can hardly *wait* to go through it all.

I'm fairly confident that the actual investment is OK, or at least that I won't make a loss on it: [company 2] are reputable (for values of 'reputable' = 'recommended by right-wing pseudohighbrow press who chase Bad People on behalf of their readers'; for more convincing values of 'reputable' including 'have done basic checks and seems OK' and 'they are the people who told me about [ex-financial advisor] emigrating, and put me in touch with his boss'). The real problem is with Financial Advice Co and they are most definitely regulated.

I am glad someone was convinced by IFA's intention to rectify the problem -- but, to be honest, I wasn't. His notion of rectification seems to involve meeting up and he is pretty much refusing to do anything until we have met in person. And life's too short.

Thank you for good wishes! Watch this space for updates ...