Financial Advice Disputes

Many Australians get financial advice from experts about investing their hard-earned money, usually for their retirement. Most financial advisers give good and appropriate advice.

But sometimes, financial advice can be negligent or misleading and result in significant financial losses. If you suffer financial losses because of negligent financial advice you may be able to sue your financial adviser or lodge a complaint to an Ombudsman (FOS).

Financial advisers are usually required to:

• do a Financial Needs Analysis (FNA) to work out your financial needs, risk tolerance and your knowledge of types of investments and share markets etc;
• prepare a written Statement of Advice (SOA) setting out the recommended investment advice based on the above;
• get your agreement to that SOA or an amended one;
• implement the investments based on the SOA; and
• only make any significant changes if they do a new FNA or SOA.

If any of the above are not followed and if you suffer financial losses, you may have a claim for compensation for the losses.
At Berrill and Watson we are experts in financial advice disputes and we will:

• look at your documents and have a meeting with you to assess your claim for FREE; and
• represent you in any claim, complaint to FOS or court case “no-win/no fee*”.

You can use our checklist to see if your adviser has acted negligently or in a misleading manner.

You might have a claim against the adviser or their company for any financial losses you suffer because of the above, if your adviser:

• didn’t follow all the above steps;
• said you were a risky investor-when you are conservative;
• recommended a risky investment strategy but didn’t warn you of the risks;
• recommended you borrow money to pay for investments but didn’t fully explain the risks of this, for example, if you can’t afford the loan repayments;
• put you in investments that were too risky or didn’t spread the investments enough;
• didn’t explain the downside if markets fall;
• didn’t explain the effect of investments on Centrelink, compensation or insurance benefits you have;
• failed to monitor the investments when they said they would; or
• changed or churned the investments too much.

If you need advice or assistance in relation to financial disputes, contact the team at Berrill & Watson to discuss your situation.