Financial advisors are often instructed to advise business and individuals on a multitude of different financial products, from property investment schemes, mortgages, pensions, annuities, debentures, to stocks and shares etc.

The Financial Conduct Authority requires financial service providers to be registered and authorised before they can offer regulated activities, which include but are not limited to providing consumer credit, providing insurance products and providing advice on investments.

The Financial Conduct Authority requires all financial products to be sold in a way that is clear, fair and not mis-leading.

Financial advisors owe their clients a duty of care, and if they breach that duty and the client suffers a financial loss, the client may be entitled to bring a claim for compensation.

How Ison Harrison establish if you have a claim

Our Professional Negligence team will initially consider what you instructed your financial advisor to do, and consider any agreement between you and your financial advisor, to establish what duty of care was owed to you.

Once we have established that your financial advisor has breached their duty to you, we will assess the losses you have incurred and we will advise you on the most appropriate course of action, to place you back in the position had financial advisor not breached their duty to you, and seek to obtain the compensation or redress you are owed.

The first course of action would be to make a complaint directly to the financial advisor via the financial advisor’s own complaints handling procedure.  Should the financial advisor not uphold your complaint, it may be possible to raise a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service for compensation, or alternatively legal proceedings can be commenced to seek compensation and to remedy any loss.

If the financial advisor or firm are no longer in existence or trading, it may be possible to raise a complaint with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, albeit both the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme have limits to the amount of compensation they can award.

Choosing the most appropriate route to recovering compensation can be complicated, and it is always sensible to seek professional advice in such circumstances, especially when considering the amount of loss and any time limits on pursuing such claims.

Below are just a few examples of financial advisor negligence we can help with:

  • Failing to consider your attitude to risk;
  • Failing to provide sufficient information to allow you to make an informed decision;
  • Providing unsuitable or negligent investment advice;
  • Failing to disclose additional fees and charges;
  • Pressurising you into purchasing a particular financial product;
  • Advising you to invest in a product that was mis-represented to you at the point of sale.

Our specialist Professional Negligence team has over 20 years’ experience in the field and are renowned for our strong and sensible approach to dispute resolution and litigation.

Contact the Dispute Resolution Team. 

Please contact Lindsay Dixon at lindsay.dixon@isonharrison.co.uk or Jonathan Robson at jonathan.robson@isonharrison.co.uk.