Case for a refund?

[Dazed]

Hi all,

Back in January 2008 I invested in Evergreen and Inovator fund with Bank of Ireland. €5,000 and €10,000 respecively. At the time I noticed some inconsistencies in the paper work that the Inovator fund was title as Ethical Equity but I was reasured by my financial advisor that this was just a global title for Active Growth Funds. I signed the paper work on her advise, she seems like a nice girl.

In April I applied for online access to my funds to observe how dismally they were performing! However it was then I new something was surely a miss as the unit value of my "Ethical Equity" was not the same as the Inovator fund advertised on the same site.

I went back to my financial advisor who recognised her error and said she would switch the funds for me. In April 2008 my funds were switched to Inovator.

10 months down the line I have lost over €5,000, needless to say I am none too impressed but I realise that is the name of the game, and that I am not the only one. However like any young person having lost a good chunk of their life savings I decided to look back through my paper work with regard the errors made in the launch of my fund.

The following came out of looking at the paper work from the fund switch back in April. Bank of Ireland, though the error of investing in the wrong fund was theirs in the first place, have not only charged me administration fees to switch to the Inovator fund, they have also made me take the hit from the decline of the original investment in the Ethical Equity fund.

It's bad enough loosing €5,000 in 10 months with out the bank who made a mistake in the first place creaming off my money to correct it. Do I have a case to complain and ask for some if not all of my intitial investment back?

Any advise much appreciated.

 

[brazen_dude]

Is the financial advisor works for the bank? if yes, bank definitely has the responsibility to fix the error and cover your loss that you incurred as part of the error.

 

[LDFerguson]

Have you worked out what the value would have been if you had invested in the correct fund from the outset? There probably would have been a loss also. Under the circumstances, I would be requesting that your fund be switched to the correct fund, backdated to the start of your investment and that there should be no charge for the switch itself.

 

[mercman]

Dazed, In case you weren't told, Bank of Ireland Life are Tied Agents of New Ireland. The entire circumstances are Bizaar to sat the least. It's amazing the amount of mistakes which these two entities make for such large organisations. I think you might be better requesting for a refund and if they do not accept this, request a letter of Final Response and send to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Dazed - please read the Posting Guidelines and make the title of your post more meaningful. Identify the product you are talking about in the title.

Could others please refrain from answering questions with vague titles.

thanks

Brendan