Royal commission not the answer to recovering lost investments

The Turnbull government’s Royal Commission is putting the financial services industry under the spotlight, with many people wondering what to do if they have been a victim of bad financial advice. 

“If you believe that you have been a victim of bad financial advice, and have suffered investment losses, there are options available to assist you in recovering your losses.” Said The Honourable Mr Ripoll. The Royal commission will be identifying big picture issues but is not the answer to recover individual losses.

The first thing you should do is contact the adviser’s complaints team.  This should be outlined in the Financial Services Guide they provide you upon signing up to their service, and should be readily available if requested. It is important that the complaint go to the licensee responsible for the advice. The licensee details will be included in the Statement of Advice.

Mr Ripoll suggests that people unhappy with the response from their adviser’s complaints team, to take the next step and contact an external dispute resolution (EDR) service which exists to resolve disputes between consumers and their financial service provider.  This service is free and independent.   In Australia, financial service providers must be registered with one of the three following schemes, which they are obligated to disclose to their clients. 

·       FOS – Financial Ombudsman service

·       CIO – Credit and Investment Ombudsman

·       SCT – Superannuation Complaints Tribunal

 “Navigating this process and paperwork can be very complicated and demanding for consumers without assistance or training in finance.  Luckily there are services like Financial Rescue who can assist victims of bad financial advice and guide them through the claims process” Said Mr Ripoll.  Financial Rescue has helped their clients recover over $8 million in losses from bad financial advice.

While unfortunately bad financial advice does happen, at least there is support for people who have become a victim of bad advice. Mr Ripoll said.

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Financial Rescue offers a simple, streamlined alternative to lodging and managing financial service complaints with the Financial Service’s Ombudsman (FOS).  We handle financial service dispute from start to finish. We fill the knowledge gap with the skills and expertise needed to effectively resolve these dispute’s.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact [email protected] at 1300 095 561.