Mis Sold Halifax Investment Claim Paid £1,800 Compensation

A Mis Sold Investment Claim - Client Situation

Mrs O invested £2,000 into a Personal Equity Plan sold to her by a Financial Advisor working for the Halifax in the mid 1990s.

Although Mrs O was working at the time, the £2,000 investment represented most of her savings. She was advised to put her money into an investment in the UK Growth Fund. This was a medium risk investment.

Mrs O’s investment closed in April 2004, after about 9 years. She got back £2,595.

How We Helped

Mrs O called our Mis Sold Investment Claims specialists and spoke to Graham Harris in June 2020. Because Mrs O’s investment was so long ago, she didn’t have any information about her investment. Instead, Graham simply wrote to the Halifax asking for information about the Personal Equity Plan investment that Mrs O had made back in the mid Nineties.

The Halifax provided this information, so Graham knew what financial product she was sold. He then spoke to Mrs O to get detailed information about her personal situation at the time she made the investment.

Once she’d talked to Graham about her personal circumstances at the time of the investment, it quickly became obvious that the advice she’d been given was not suitable for her.

Graham wrote to the Halifax outlining all the concerns around Mrs O’s Personal Equity Plan investment. The concerns were:

• That the £2,000 investment was most of her savings at the time of the investment.
• She was advised to invest in the UK Growth Fund, which was too high a risk for an inexperienced first time investor.
• She’d not be given enough time to reflect on the advice she’d been given by the financial advisor.

Once these concerns were set out in writing, Graham waited for a response from the Halifax. They have up to 8 weeks to reply. 

The Outcome

The Halifax responded to Graham’s letter and agreed that Mrs O’s investment was unsuitable for her and she received £1,800 compensation, despite actually making some money on her investment.

Mrs O was very pleased with the outcome of her claim and kindly provided this testimonial about working with Graham:

I contacted Simpson Millar to discuss a Personal Equity Plan I took out with the Halifax back in the Nineties. Although I hadn’t lost money on it I had never really been happy with the investment. With my authority, Graham obtained all of the details of my investment and put my case forward to the Halifax. I was absolutely delighted to hear that my complaint was being upheld and was awarded in excess of £1,800. The service provided by Simpson Millar was Brilliant!

Simpson Millar Solicitors are a national law firm with over 500 staff and offices in Bristol, Cardiff, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Manchester.