ANZ Financial Advice Complaint - Too Long Ago?

AustraliaObscura on 06/05/2018 - 19:53
Last edited 07/05/2018 - 09:44 by 1 other user

I found out my mother has had some bad financial advice from her ANZ financial adviser, and I'm trying to work out what recourse (if any) she has.

It was about 2-3 years ago. She had the same financial adviser through ANZ for 6+ years, loved him, always got him Christmas cards, trusted every little thing he told her, etc. He told her to transfer a certain amount into super, yet the amount turned out to cost her over $10,000 in fees to transfer / extra tax. After that incident, his number was cut off and she could never get in contact with him again. ANZ said the issue was between her and the adviser, and that the terms were in the fine print, etc. No apology, no real explanation, no idea where her "friend" the adviser went.

All the banking commission stories in the news have stirred it up for her and she told family the extent of what she lost. Is it worth escalating the complaint to ANZ? Or is it too long ago and just have to chalk it up to inexperience?

Financial

Related Stores

ANZ
ANZ

Comments

  • ziaxk87 on 06/05/2018 - 20:07
    +6

    always worth to bring it to their. attention. 10k is not a small amount.. usually if bank accepts their responsibility they will give her something in return…at the minimum you will make everyone aware of what wrong has happened while trusting banks

    • Mango Madness on 07/05/2018 - 00:17
      +3

      In addition to the $10,000 in fees, your mother may have had opportunity loss from the poor advice. If this is the case, ANZ will complete a review for you and determine where your mother would be if she had received appropriate advice and make her whole (put her in the position she would be, had she received appropriate advice).

  • serpserpserp on 06/05/2018 - 20:36
    +3

    lol have you not seen the royal commission stuff? There are bringing up stuff from 10 years ago. Maybe just forward it to RC prosecuting council!

    • AustraliaObscura on 06/05/2018 - 23:07

      I just found out about it, however I think my mother was embarrassed and after being rebuffed by ANZ a few times while trying to sort out what had happened she just left it and blamed herself.
      I have seen everything in the news but thought perhaps you had to submit stories / claims a while ago and it was all just coming out now in the inquiry. Scary how common it seems!

  • Diji1 on 06/05/2018 - 21:53
    +2

    It boggles my mind that people trust financial advisors that are working in banks. I mean by itself the profession is dodgy enough but you add the scum that is the big 4 into it as well and they trust that with their money?

    • JiGaXD on 07/05/2018 - 00:09
      +3

      Just because you have one bad apple, doesn't mean that they're all bad. Applies to any profession or job really. Like any doctor, mechanic, or any customer sales rep. It's unfortunate that the bad ones that make the whole industry seem dodgy while the good ones aren't necessarily given the recognition they deserve.

    • Mango Madness on 07/05/2018 - 00:11

      I understand how you feel Diji, especially as the media shows the bad news stories.

      The issue with banks in the media atm is very serious, completely agree.

      What we see with the RC are the actions of rogues in an industry, it's certainly not the norm.

    • ziaxk87 on 07/05/2018 - 10:43
      +1

      I know if they are good financial advisors they wouldn't have to work at bank… they would be millionaire themselves

  • garetz on 06/05/2018 - 22:19
    +4

    Yes its worth escalating, some people are getting their money back from 10 years ago +

  • bargain ben on 06/05/2018 - 22:59
    +6

    Make a submission to the banking royal Commission about your mother’s experience. It’s not too late

    https://financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au/Public-subm…

    • AustraliaObscura on 06/05/2018 - 23:08

      Thank you so much, I'll forward this to her. I didn't know they were still taking submissions.

      • garetz on 07/05/2018 - 00:00
        +2

        " It cannot resolve individual disputes. It cannot fix or award compensation or make orders requiring a party to a dispute to take or not take any action."

        I very much doubt this will help you.

  • JiGaXD on 06/05/2018 - 23:47
    +6

    It might be worth calling the ANZ contact centre to ask for more information on how you can follow up your complaint. It sounds like it could lead to a review of the financial advice that was given. Even though it might not seem like it, a lot of the banks are in damage control and have alerted their customer service staff on helping customers that have had financial advice issues. If the review isn't to your liking, you could always follow it up. There's no harm done in following it up first with them (in addition to the submission to the royal commission).

    Source: I work in the banking sector and have seen announcements regarding this.

    • Mango Madness on 07/05/2018 - 00:02
      +2

      Like JiGaXD said, call ANZ and they will be willing to help you.

      If the Adviser was from ANZ, your mother would have received a Statement of Advice. It will list all the contact numbers within and outside of ANZ for your mother to seek assistance.

      In terms of the issue, if it was negligence or inappropriate advice, then there is no statute of limitations. If this is the case, ANZ will make your mother whole, so it is definitely worth following up with ANZ. If ANZ is not willing to listen and you are not satisfied with their response, then you can follow this up with the Financial Ombudsman.

      You can submit via the Royal Commission as well, but that is more to report an issue, than to get compensation.

      Hope that helps.

  • browneh on 07/05/2018 - 12:07

    I would absolutely contact them, three years isn’t that long ago in the scheme of thing and ANZ actually announced today they would offer an advice review to customers that are concerned (note last line of this article) http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/breaking-news/anz-wi…

  • bobbified on 07/05/2018 - 12:18
    +1

    He told her to transfer a certain amount into super, yet the amount turned out to cost her over $10,000 in fees to transfer / extra tax.

    I'm not coming up with excuses and I'm in no way defending the advisor but without more information of the circumstances at the time, it's hard to tell whether it was bad advice or not.

    $10,000 in fees/taxes might sound a lot by itself, but it's also possible that that amount could've grown had it not been paid at the time. You're obviously assume that the advisor has taken all that as a fee - that may not be the case. Again, it's hard to say without additional information.

    Some of the very old super funds schemes had set payment fees for certain members at a percentage of the final account balance.

    • Cheapskate Paul on 07/05/2018 - 19:36
      +1

      It's possible that the additional taxes were due to exceeding the annual cap on super contributions, although the OP hasn't stated this. If that's the case, it was very bad advice.

      • AustraliaObscura on 08/05/2018 - 14:14

        Yes, sorry I wasn't very clear. I've only found out bits and pieces before getting the full story. My mother has only got one super account, the advice was transferring extra into super and it exceeded the annual cap (plus the advisors fees went up at that time too…).

        • bobbified on 09/05/2018 - 09:55

          Geez - from an advisor's point of view, that would be the first thing that would come into mind when making additional contributions!

          Do you know which financial year those contributions fell into? It was 2013/2014 when excess contributions were taxed at the highest marginal rate. After that, they reduced it so that the total tax on those contributions would be the equivalent of the person's marginal tax rate. So if it wasn't in the 2013/2014 year, the tax might seem like a lot, but it's not really because had it been taken as cash, the same amount of income tax would've been paid on it.

          There are a few options on what can be done with excess contributions (like applying to the fund for a refund of those contributions) and I'd suggest you seek some additional advice that takes into account your mother's financial position and circumstances.

  • Baysew on 07/05/2018 - 17:29
    -2

    Contact Credit & Investment Ombudsman

    • Baysew on 08/05/2018 - 13:43

      Credit and Investments Ombudsman (CIO) - 1800 138 422
      CIO handles complaints about credit unions, building societies, non-bank lenders, mortgage and finance brokers, financial planners, lenders and debt collectors, credit licensees and credit representatives. They cover complaints where the value of the claim is $500,000 or less.

      Source: ASIC Money Smart - How to Complain

  • lainey13 on 07/05/2018 - 21:42
    +1

    You could also try the newspapers, especially in conjunction with any statements ANZ have made to the commission about what they've been doing recently to 'help'.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join