Complaint re Poor Investment Product in Family Trust - guidance please

[BadInvestment]

I am hoping there’s some MN’tters out there who have experience in financial services & could please advise me on the wording of a complaint against a company.

My parents had a Family Protection Trust set up in 2011 & have now both passed away & I’m currently settling my mum’s estate. I am a Trustee & Executor, only appointed in the last couple of years when my mum was failing.

As part of the Trust, they made an investment with Axa (via McClure’s & their IFA) which was subsequently bought over by an Isle of Man based company.

The original investment was 130k & it was meant to be self managed, but this never happened.

So today that investment is now worth 116k, as the company made quarterly admin charges (essentially for doing nothing) & the original money has just sat with them, doing nothing. It was never invested.

I queried why they never wrote to my parents, or highlighted this, or took any action to actually invest it. Surely they had some duty of care?

I’d like to make some kind of complaint, as it looks like they have charged 14k over 15 years to essentially do nothing.

Any guidance on wording, regulatory responsibility, client duty of care etc would be appreciated. Thanks.

You need to establish which body is at fault. I am unclear whether the advice was bad or there was a .mistake on the investment ie wasn't invested. If it was self managed then surely your parents were supposed to do that? The fact they didn't isn't the responsibility of the company?
Anyway first thing first establish what paperwork you have from your parents eg were they sent regular statements etc.
Then write to the company and complain but you need to be clear on the basis eg they did not communicate or they didn't provide good advice or they didn't invest it when they should have

write to the IFA with your complaint and see what the response if. If you aren’t satisfied with it then you have the right to go to the ombudsman. The adviser should tell you about your rights when you complain. The issue that you may have is that if your parents agreed that they would take advice only to set up the policy but not ongoing advice, then it was down to your parents to invest the money. But, if the adviser has been receiving advice fees for the term of the investment, then they should have been offering regular and ongoing reviews. It’s certainly worth making a complaint.

Looking at the paperwork, the IFA was working with McClures who went into administration, and he is not traceable.

The documents say “I will review the fund performance & provide you with ongoing advice”. So I’m not sure how much recourse I have there.

Annual statements were sent to my parents, they seem to have been automatically generated. The admin fees came out of the initial pot of money, which was never invested.

If the documents say he would provide advice on how to invest then never did and he was a regulated IFA you can complain to the FCA if he is not traceable (I'd imagine).

Not sure how to proceed but there’s an active Facebook page with mcclures former families affected by these trusts. https://www.facebook.com/groups/515146113165574