Finance Monthly Global Awards 2016 Edition

56 www.finance-monthly.com Finance Monthly Global Awards 2016 UNITED KINGDOM Contact Details Tim Wixted, Founder, Wixted & Co Solicitors Address: 57 Putney Bridge Road, London, SW18 1NP Tel: 0208 877 8700 Email: law@wixtedandco.co.uk Web: www.neglectassist.co.uk PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR Winner: Firm Profile We are a firm of Solicitors who specialise in pursuing claims for financial mis-selling and other professional negligence matters and are delighted that our success has been recognised in the Finance Monthly Global Awards. Our work in this area involves assisting people in recovering financial losses and securing compensation from financial advisers and other connected parties who have recommended unsuitable investments, pension transfers and other similar financial products. Many of our clients are low risk investors who have been advised to place money into products or schemes where there are inherent risks involved. Such products are often wholly unsuitable for our clients due to the high risk or speculative nature of the investment. This can lead to significant losses being suffered on pension funds and other investments, which can potentially affect the level of financial security that people have during their retirement years. We play an important role in securing access to justice for those who cannot afford to fund legal action by accepting cases under no win, no fee agreements. We assess the merits of a potential claim by identifying any breaches of financial regulatory rules and provisions on contractual and negligence law. We then advise our clients on the best course of action available to them and pursue the most appropriate method of dispute resolution. This can include pursuing action through the Courts if liability is disputed. This enables us to secure successful outcomes for clients who have previously had a complaint rejected through other procedures, such as the Financial Ombudsman Service. This is a fluid area of law and we are particularly concerned that the introduction of recent pension reforms, which give people a greater degree of freedom and flexibility over how to use their pension funds, could lead to an increase in the number of financial mis-selling victims. We are also concerned that many people may have sustained financial losses following the recent referendum vote for Britain to leave the European Union that could have potentially been avoided. The FTSE 250 index fell by over 13% in the two trading days following the referendum vote and we are aware that a significant amount of capital is invested in such companies and businesses. This is commonly done via pension or investment funds that are managed by financial advisers or wealth management companies. We feel it is very likely that this sustained fall in value will have a negative impact on the value of some pension and investment funds. The FTSE 100 index certainly seems to offer investors more stability in this period of economic uncertainty. We feel this is largely because the companies within this are predominantly multi national companies who will be less impacted on as a result of Britain’s vote to leave the EU. We believe that financial advisers should have been reviewing pension and investment portfolios prior to the referendum vote to ensure funds were properly balanced and reflected risk attitudes accordingly. It may have been prudent, for example, to see a shift in investments away from funds weighted in FTSE 250 listed companies into those within the FTSE 100 index. If a financial adviser or money manager has failed to do this, and financial losses have followed, there may be grounds for bringing a claim for professional negligence. We have also recently been campaigning for regulatory and legal reforms concerning the manner in which charges are imposed on some pension funds which are either frozen or have lost their value entirely. We have encountered an increasing number of situations where pension plans that have previously been invested into regulated funds and assets have been transferred to Self Invested Personal Pensions (“SIPPs”) with high risk, unregulated products. These SIPPs are commonly managed or administered by a company which will make a monthly or annual charge for the service they provide. Due to the high risk nature of these products, many people have suffering devastating financial losses. In some cases, the pension fund has been lost entirely. We are aware that some SIPP providers continue to charge significant amounts of ongoing fees to their customers despite these losses. We feel that this practice is unfair. We are seeking to establish that no charges be made for the administration of a SIPP that is either frozen or worthless, and furthermore that people who have been charged such fees in the past be offered full refunds. We have contacted Members of Parliament to express our concerns and pressure for changes. Our findings have also been presented to the Financial Conduct Authority, who regulate the industry, and we have requested that new rules and regulations be imposed on their members to prevent such charges being made.

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