How might I know if my investment was mis-sold?

There are many examples of investment mis-selling, or cases where a venture seemed like a good idea but later turned out that an investment was mis-sold for various (often unfortunately apparent) reasons.

Such instances could be that you were misinformed or misled, were underinformed or flat out not informed about exactly how an investment product worked, or you were put under great pressure to move money or take the plunge.

This article details some of the most common ways an investment may turn out to have been mis-sold.

You were not advised appropriately about risks that come with the investment

Or you were not informed at all. Either way, you were not provided with the correct or honest level of knowledge necessary to make a fully educated decision about your investment.

The level of risk associated with the investment did not match your attitude to risk

For example: you consider yourself to be a low risk investor but your investment turned out to be high risk, in spite of your low-risk preferences.

An investment was a high-risk venture and you were not informed of this

You were placed into a high risk investment venture but were not told that high risk and volatility may be investment factors.

Investment decisions were out of your hands, or you were not told how your money was being invested

You had no power or knowledge over where your money was being invested, or you were simply not told what your money was going into and where.

The investment failed to live up to the promised return

You were promised or guaranteed a certain outcome, but in reality your investment failed to realistically resemble this promise.

Borrowing money via credit card or personal loan (or other) was encouraged in order to fund the investment

You could not afford or didn’t want to use existing funds to invest in the product, but you were encouraged or advised to take out loans or use credit cards to buy into the investment.

Cashing in your pension in order to fund the investment was encouraged

Your pension pot was suggested as funding to go ahead with the purchase of an investment product.

Sales pressure was applied to convince you to invest

You had a pushy salesperson or broker who applied pressure, coerced, or otherwise talked you into buying into an investment when you did not initially want to.

If any one or more of the above apply to your investment experience, you may be eligible to make a claim for investment mis-selling.