After losing his husband, Doug, Chris faced delays and errors in transferring Doug's portfolio into his name, causing both financial and emotional strain.
What happened
Doug and Chris had portfolios of investments in both joint and individual names. When Doug passed away, Chris contacted his financial adviser to deal with the estate and transfer his husband’s portfolio into his name.
There were ongoing admin errors and delays during this transfer process. Doug’s portfolio was eventually transferred into Chris’s name correctly. However, this took over a year when it should have only taken a matter of weeks.
Chris also had to contact the financial adviser several times to chase things and clarify incorrect information it had sent him. On one occasion, the adviser sent a letter addressed to Chris’s late husband asking him to call them. Chris found this very upsetting and insensitive.
Chris was devastated when his husband passed away, and the added pressure of having to chase the adviser made him feel worse. What’s more, the delays put Chris in financial difficulty because he didn’t have access to funds when he needed them.
The financial adviser apologised for the letter it sent and offered Chris £1,000 in compensation. Chris wanted a second opinion on whether the offer was fair, so asked us to look into what had happened.
What we said
We thought Chris had been extremely inconvenienced by the long delays and the ongoing administrative errors
We recognised that these delays, and the ongoing chasing, had caused Chris serious distress and inconvenience over many months at a very difficult time for him. And that further distress had been caused by the business providing him with incorrect information in relation to the portfolio and sending a letter addressed to his husband.
Overall, we thought the adviser’s mistakes had a severe impact on Chris. But we thought that the offer to pay Chris £1,000 in compensation was fair.