Dr Murray and her husband had downsized their home and had money left over after buying their new house. They spoke with a financial adviser at Abbey National about the best options they had for their funds.
The couple had never invested money previously but were advised to put a lump sum into a complicated ‘Inscape’ portfolio. This contained shares from all around the world and would use ISA allowances each year.
Investments like this should normally be held for a minimum period of 5 years but Dr Murray needed access to these funds much sooner and had withdrawn all the money within 3 years losing around £6,000 of capital.
We sent our claim to Santander arguing that Dr Murray and her husband should not have been advised to invest into the portfolio as they were taking too much risk, particularly as they were first time investors. It was also clear they were told to invest too much of their money.
After investigating our claim Santander agreed. They refunded Dr Murray the £6,000 that was lost and on top of this calculated what she could have earned had the money been left on deposit. This amount with additional interest resulted in a payment to Dr Murray totalling £13,590.