Former MP Bernie Ripoll, who chaired parliamentary joint committees on corporations and financial services, has signed on with financial complaints advice service, Financial Rescue.  As a joint force, Mr Ripoll and Financial Rescue aim to help those who have suffered because of bad financial advice recover their losses.

“I am aware of just how devastating bad financial advice can be and want to be at the forefront of assisting those who need to recover losses they should never have sustained. Financial Rescue is a tangible way of helping people faced with trying to recover their losses alone.” Mr Ripoll said.

“The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) was designed to help people recover financial loss through it’s free complaints service. The reality is that a certain level of skill is required to lodge and manage a successful case through FOS and not everybody can, or wants to do that.”

Over the last 5 years Financial Rescue has recovered over $7.5 million for victims of rogue financial advisers. Most financial advisers give good advice but those who don’t can have a devastating effect. Mr Ripoll says that currently all the work at Financial Rescue is centred on helping clients who have been convinced to set-up a Self Managed Superannuation Fund and borrow money to buy off-the-plan property. This in itself should be a warning to those considering setting up a Self Managed Super Fund to ensure the investments within it are robust.

“This issue of remediating bad advice has been a passion of mine for many years and moving forward I am enthusiastic about working with the team at Financial Rescue. It is important for victims of rogue advisers to have a means of recovering their losses that doesn’t require a high level of skill or knowledge by them.” Said Mr Ripoll.