My elderly Father had about £50k in the bank and was on first term names with some people at the bank. One of the staff - Trudy, left her position at the bank and went to work as a financial advisor at a wealth management company. Somehow she persuaded my dad that she could help invest his money. I feel she befriended him to make him a client. I didn’t find out about this until a few years down the line when he was taken ill. My Father told me that Trudy could be trusted as some of her clients were celebrities and he named them. I very much doubt a company like that would have such high profile clients and feel that Trudy used this as a way to gain my Fathers trust. He has always told me everything so I was very concerned to hear about the investments she had arranged and wondered why my Father hadn’t shared this information. The money is in an ISA and a bond. My question is how much has Trudy made out of this arrangement? I’ve no experience of financial advisors, how do they make their money out of things like this?
My gut instinct is to tell my dad to remove the money and put it in our joint account and then go from there so I can keep a close eye on things. I don’t want him taken advantage of. Trudy says that it wouldn’t be a good idea to close the bond as if my Father suddenly needed full time care some of the money would be protected and not means tested so it wouldn’t all go on fees. Not sure about that. I’m suspicious that she doesn’t want to lose my Father as a client as she could be making a lot of money out of it herself. Very worryingly a friend of a friend has told me that one of Trudy’s clients is a well known drug seller! Alarm bells are keeping me awake.