Claim Refunds for Overcharged Financial Advice Fees

Have you been paying for ongoing financial advice that you have not received?

Claim ‘no-win, no-fee’ refund compensation for overcharged fees, loss of investment growth and interest.

In 2013, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) – now the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the regulator for the financial industry – introduced ‘adviser charging’ to abolish anti-competitive commission rates.

The change aimed to ensure that clients only paid for the advice they received rather than the products their advisers recommended. These charges are deducted annually from clients’ investment pots to pay for the advice provided.

Further to the change to pay structures, the FCA outlines that for any ongoing fees, financial advisers should: “clearly confirm the details of the ongoing service, any associated charges and how the client can cancel it.”

In addition, sufficient processes and controls should be in place to ensure that clients receive the advice they are paying for and that the products they are paying for are still suitable for their circumstances.

Financial advisers, financial planners and wealth managers have recently been in the news for either providing unsuitable advice for clients’ needs, circumstances, and risk levels, or for charging clients for ongoing advice and reviews that never took place. In some cases, clients were not aware that they were paying for these services and have since made claims against the firms to recover the sometimes significant fees, together with the loss of growth on the investment funds and interest.

In February 2024 the FCA as part of its focus on ‘Consumer Duty’, which sets higher and clearer standards of consumer protection to put customers’ needs first, and in a crackdown on unsuitable advice and obscure fees, requested data from 20 of the largest UK advice firms about their services and what changes they’d made since Consumer Duty was introduced.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), an independent government-backed body responsible for resolving disputes between FCA regulated financial institutions and their customers, has also published a number of decisions where firms have been instructed to reimburse clients for unfulfilled fees.

Refund claims for financial advice that you have not received

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Working on a ‘no win – no fee’ basis, TLW’s experienced pensions and investments lawyers can help you through the compensation process, whether this is settled in the early stages directly with your adviser or FOS.

TLW Solicitors’ financial mis-selling team has extensive experience of successfully taking cases to FOS and securing client compensation, even if they have been knocked back previously.

We will ensure that:

The correct claims information is submitted on your behalf;
Your case is swiftly and proactively progressed;
You are kept up to date at every stage of the refund claim;
You receive the amount of compensation you are rightfully owed, including any avoidable loss of investment growth and interest, and
if your claim is rejected, we will explore any further avenues of redress.

Speak to us today to find out if you have a valid refund claim.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about ongoing advice fee claims

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Step by step, what is the process for making an ongoing advice fees refund claim?

The circumstances of each case are different, but our general refund claims process is as follows:

Step 1 – You will provide us with the necessary details we need to determine whether you have a valid complaint for the overcharging of advice fees by the financial adviser. If having reviewed that information, we are happy to go ahead and investigate your case, we will securely send you our online agreement via e-sign for you to review and return.

Step 2 – Based on the information provided and using our technical knowledge and expertise of these cases, our team will draft the complaint and send to the relevant financial adviser. We will decide whether it is necessary to obtain your file or other details and, if so, we will send a data subject access request on your behalf to the financial adviser.

Step 3 – Upon receiving a response from the financial adviser, we will advise you on the next course of action, including whether any offer made is reasonable and should be accepted – if we advise that you should not accept the offer, we will give our reasons why. We will then prepare your case for submission to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

What information do you need from me to start my claim?

To start your ongoing advice fees refund claim we will need:

Up to date ID
Up to date proof of address
The name of the individual adviser you’ve dealt with
Reference numbers for all the products you hold with the financial adviser

We will prepare all of your documents, do the chasing on your behalf and advise you if and why any settlement offer is reasonable, paying regard to particular circumstances of the case.

Depending on what we find following our investigations and where relevant we may recommend further complaints are pursued against the financial adviser concerned.

How do you work out the value of my claim?

The value of your claim will depend on what products you have with the financial adviser, the value of your funds, what you have been charged and how many missed annual reviews you have had. Each case is unique, and our specialist team will ensure that we aim to recover what you are rightfully owed.

How long will the claim take?

It is hard to say with certainty how long claims like these take to settle, it can vary from weeks to months. It also depends on whether we recommend your claim is escalated to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

What will making a claim cost me?

We offer a free, no-obligation assessment of your case and will make a decision on whether or not to pursue your claim. If we take on your case, we operate on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis, meaning you do not pay us anything if your refund claim is unsuccessful. If we win your case, what we will charge you will depend on the amount of compensation you receive.

Our costs are governed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. More details of which can be provided to you before you decide if you wish to proceed with a claim.

What happens if my claim is knocked back?

If your claim is rejected by the financial adviser, we will investigate and let you know if there are grounds to escalate your complaint to FOS. Even if your complaint is rejected at the first stage of the FOS process, we may still consider appealing that decision to the final stage of the Ombudsman process.

I am generally happy with my pension and/or investment's performance - if I make a claim, can I stay with my financial adviser and will making a claim impact my investments?

Making a claim against any adviser should not affect either your relationship with them or your investments under management.

How will I know what is happening with my claim?

Depending on the circumstances of your case (and due to a wide range of factors outside of our control) making a refund claim can take several months to complete. As your case progresses, we will aim to give you as much information as possible about the likely timescales.

Our robust case management systems ensure that we regularly update you on your claim. You will be allocated a dedicated case handler who you can contact with any queries, issues, concerns, or if you need any clarification about the refund claim process. They will always aim to provide a full response in jargon free, plain English.

Start Your Compensation Claim Online

Start Your Claim Request a Callback

or call us on 0800 169 5925

TLW Solicitors can help

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If you or a loved one are a current or former client of a financial adviser, financial planning or wealth management firm and believe that you have paid management fees for ongoing advice that you have not received, then you may be entitled to compensation.

Get in touch with the professional negligence team at TLW Solicitors for a no-obligation conversation about making a ‘no-win, no-fee’ advice fee refund claim.

You can call us on 0800 169 5925, email info@tlwsolicitors.co.uk or complete one of the forms below.

Time limits can apply, so anyone wishing to bring a claim should do so without delay.

Start Your Claim Request a Callback

Meet Our Team

Meet Sarah, who heads up our experienced Professional Negligence Claims team.

Sarah and her colleagues are on hand to help with your claim.

About Sarah

TLW Solicitors pledge to:

Always fight your corner.
Explain anything you don't understand.
Provide full transparency on our charges.
Never ask for any upfront payment.
Recover the best compensation we can.
Keep your personal information safe.
Respond quickly to any queries.

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Management Advice Fees Claims:
Refund Claims for on-going Advice Fees