ombudsman
essential reading for financial firms and consumer advisers
| in this issue |
| about this issue |
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| split capital investment trusts |
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| time bars |
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| the assessment team |
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| costs |
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| pension cases |
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| a selection of recent cases |
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issue 16 |
 bringing
you news from the Financial Ombudsman Service and focusing each month
on complaints about investment, insurance or banking & loans
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There has been extensive coverage in the press recently about split
capital investment trusts (‘splits’) and the Financial Services
Authority issued an update on this subject on 16 May 2002, outlining
areas it is considering further. To date we have received few complaints
about these complex products, but we believe they could impact on
our work over the coming months.
As we note in our article on split capital investment trusts, although aspects of these investments do not fall within our jurisdiction, there should certainly be areas where we will be able to help investors, particularly if they were not properly informed about the degree of risk involved.
In this issue of ombudsman news we also provide updates on:
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whether consumers can claim reimbursement for the cost of employing third parties, such as legal advisers or complaint-handling firms, to help them with their complaints;
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changes to the time limit for cases that would formerly have been dealt with by the PIA Ombudsman Bureau, following a House of Lords' decision; and
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the revised memorandum of understanding established between the Pensions Ombudsman and ourselves.
Finally, as well as providing a general round-up of some of the investment cases we have dealt with in recent months, we focus on the types of complaint dealt with by the caseworkers in our assessment team. We explain how, by cooperating fully with these caseworkers, firms can help us bring a significant number of complaints to a speedy conclusion.
As always,
we very much welcome feedback from our readers. Do please let us have
your comments and any suggestions for
future issues.
Jane Whittles
principal ombudsman
investment division