Mis-sold Investments?

A question about : Mis-sold Investments?

I heard yesterday that mis-sold investments is going to be the 'next PPI', in fact bigger than PPI according to the report I read.

Does anyone have any evidence to back this up or is it a load of rubbish?

Thanks,

Best answers:

• Most likely a load of rubbish, people choose to go into investments, they are not forced to do them and the risk profile is agreed with you before you invest - what report did you read?
• Nothing in the financial press or industry press suggests any issues with investments.
  Historically, there have been small pockets of cases (such as SCARPS) but with the banks pulling out of advice, the industry is in very good position in general at present.
  It should also be noted that if someone was to complain about investments and the complaint was upheld, the outcome would be to put them back in the position they would have been had it been in cash savings. You would struggle to find any investment that has not outperformed cash over the last 7 years. (7 years being the average life of an investment product).
  To put some context on the current complaints level. The FCA publish figures periodically and the 09/2014 figure showed complaints about the investment product group fell 9% to 42,109. PPI had 1,236,899. Current accounts 319,505, credit cards 127,708.
  One area the FCA is looking at is the DIY market as there are concerns that some of the offerings in the DIY world are being taken as advice and are not disclosing things in the way advised distribution would. There is also concern over the pension freedoms. However, they dont start until April 2015.
  If you look back at speculation, there has been a lot over the years as to what is next. In 2010, CMCs were saying it was contracting out of SERPSs (FSA found a failure rate of only 1% so that quickly died a death and the CMCs that carried it on were dodgy as hell - up front charging or doing pension transfers and using the complaint as an excuse). Next they said mortgages but that never happened. Then crowfunding, then annuities. None have led to anything.
  In reality, the scope to be mis-sold a mainstream investment fund is actually very low. There are a number of unregulated scams and some dodgy regulated firms using unregulated investments which could does raise eyebrows. However, unregulated firms give no consumer protection and the dodgy regulated advised sales are not common enough.
  its probably some dodgy claims company trying to drum up business.
• There have been some investment scandals - generally involving what the FCA now calls Non Mainstream Investment Products. These are generally products outside the normal remit of businesses it regulates but can be invested in via indirect routes, in particular through Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPS), investment bonds with insurance companies and via companies known as platforms - but they can be direct.
  They can also seek out an Independent Financial Adviser to be a fall guy and get round the regulations by letting the adviser carry the can when it all goes wrong!