OK to cut a long story not very short.
My mum is not short of a penny or too. To help her with it she has an Independent Financial Advisor who, over the years, has become indispensible to her. Some might say he has made himself indispensible to her. He is often round at her house and seems to have engineered a situation whereby he handles almost all of her admin - certainly to the point where he opens any mail relating to her investments.
A few years back I discovered that he had tried to get her to invest a six figure sum in an overseas property venture. This investment was not in any related to giving financial advice and infact was proposed as a joint venture with his wife. My mum - not wanting to offend him by saying no - tried to get out of it by trying to give the money to me and my bro which we both declined and when we realised she was wanting rid of the money we started ask questions and the whole thing came out. I wrote to him telling that I knew what he had done and that it was unacceptable. I sought advice from my cousin who's a lawyer for the FSA before writing to him and included a few phrases in my letter that would make it apparent to the IFA that I'd sought some kind of professional advice. My DH said we should have shoppped him to the FSA but my mum was DESPERATE for us not to. BTW my cousin said that even if we shopped him to the FSA then they wouldn't have done much about it which seemed strange to me.
My dad is also a client of his. Several years before this incident now, when his mum died he rented out her old house to another of this IFA's clients. This house had a flat which the tenant was at liberty to sub-let. The tennant sub-let it to the IFA when his marriage went wrong. THe IFA never told my dad he had moved into his property. I found out from my mum and told him. We thought this was dodgy, but did nothing.
Today I have learnt from my dad that he has discovered that the company that the IFA is trading under is no longer in business. DH checked on FSA website and this is true as of end Jan 07, however the IFA is still registered with the FSA but nunder a different company name. My dad has definitely received financial advice from the IFA in March and he didn't say anything about tradng under a new company name.
I just called my mum. She doesn't know anything either.
So, this guy who has twice beenquestionable in his integrity - to say the least - has failed to tell two of his clients that the company he was trading under is no longer operational. He is still registered with the IFA though so as I as I can tell he's not breaking any code of practice there, but it all still seems odd, especially as when he moved companies a while back and set up on his own we had new business cards a plenty from him and it was practically front page news as far as he was concered.
I used to be his client too until the property investment debacle at which I sacked him. Wish I hadn't as for me this is a case of keeping friends close and enemies closer IFYKWIM.
So, mum (who's practically in love with this man I think) will want me to do nothing - she will do nothing. Dad is wanting answers. DH is wanting IFA's blood and reckons that he is a legacy hunter.
I share DH's view and want to protect my mum from a potential conman but feel powerless and don't want to upset my mum by getting involved.
What can I do?