Complaining About Financial Advice and Services
You don’t have to put up with poor service – especially when something as important as your money is involved. You might, however, feel that you lack enough understanding of the law to make your case effectively. That is why there are organisations that offer their services to help private investors with grievances.
Should you feel you have been given bad service or wrong information by your financial adviser or institution (bank, building society etc), first talk to your regular contact, and if that does not resolve the issue, approach his or her line manager and then the head office (if applicable).
It is best to put your complaint in writing, including the word ‘complaint’ at the top of your letter and setting out the facts clearly. If you make contact by phone, remain calm and make a note of the name of the person to whom you spoke, the date and time and what was said.
If you have not received a satisfactory response after several weeks, it is time to approach the Financial Ombudsman (http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk), which provides a free service for resolving disputes over most financial services and products in the UK.
You must register with the ombudsman within six months of receiving the final letter from your financial adviser. The ombudsman will remain impartial and investigate the situation to establish whether your financial adviser or institution has treated you unfairly. If it finds in your favour, you could receive compensation of up to £100,000.
Be aware, however, that some complaints take six months or more to resolve, though nearly half of all disputes are settled much more quickly. And there are some complaints with which the Financial Ombudsman does not deal. These include the way an investment has performed, firms that provide personal loans and consumer credit but which aren’t banks or building societies, and the action of another party’s insurance company.
Should you feel that you have been mistreated by a financial institution, you can also contact the Financial Services Authority (FSA) (http://www.fsa.gov.uk), a non-government agency set up in 1997 to maintain confidence in Britain’s financial system.
The FSA won’t deal with grumbles like your bank not having enough cashiers available at lunchtime, but it will look into accusations of discourteous employees, unexpected or excessive charges, incorrect or misleading information about a product, failure to carry out instructions or warn about the risks of a product, unfair discrimination, or not being given adequate notice about a change in a contract. The FSA will note your complaint but it will not take up your individual case.
If you have a concern about issues involving hire purchase, conditional sale, personal contract purchase, personal lease plans, secured and unsecured personal loans, credit cards and store card facilities, the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) may be able to help you if the company in question is a member of the FLA (http://www.fla.org.uk), which has its own arbitration body.
Similarly, the Pensions Advisory Service (OPAS) (http://www.opas.org.uk) and the Pensions Ombudsman (http://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk) are two organisations that cover problems concerning the way occupational and personal pension schemes are run. Both services are free of charge.
