FOS decisions / Investment Administration
Investment Administration
Financial Ombudsman Service final decisions, reproduced verbatim from the FOS published decisions register.
Decisions
54
Upheld
29
Not upheld
25
Avg redress
£1,046
Upheld complaints (29)
Brown Shipley & Co Limited
DRN-6196514A financial services firm must pay agreed settlement compensation without unreasonable delay and cannot withhold payment without legitimate reason.
UpheldFeb 2026Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited
DRN-5601510A firm must provide customers with sufficient information to make informed decisions and act in their best interests when executing corporate actions affecting investments.
UpheldMar 2025St James Place Wealth Management Plc
DRN-6143312A firm must clearly disclose when providing an encashment valuation that suspended funds included in the valuation will not be received on encashment.
UpheldRedress £250Trade Capital UK Ltd
DRN-4729882A CFD provider must provide clients with adequate pre-event information about corporate actions and communicate transparently when initial calculations are provisional or estimated.
UpheldRedress £200IG Index Limited
DRN-4753159A spread betting firm must treat a customer fairly and cannot impose professional client status without ensuring the customer receives appropriate protections and understands the material differences in regulatory safeguards.
UpheldIG Index Limited
DRN-4537788A financial services firm may close positions in sanctioned assets at zero value in accordance with its customer agreement terms, provided it communicates this decision clearly and reinstates positions where possible in a separate account.
UpheldRedress £250London Capital Group Ltd
DRN-5042165A financial services provider must provide clear reasons when closing customer positions and accounts, and closure decisions must be fair and reasonable given the circumstances.
UpheldRedress £4,000Janus Henderson Fund Management UK Limited
DRN-6058577A firm is not required to take proactive steps to trace account holders marked as 'gone away' beyond standard communication attempts, though it must act fairly in providing available information and fair compensation for loss of use of fund
UpheldJarvis Investment Management Limited
DRN-6242541A nominee stockbroker must proactively communicate corporate actions to clients, particularly where shares face delisting, and should seek instructions or take protective action to prevent total loss of value.
UpheldRedress £500Freetrade Limited
DRN-5995386A financial services firm is responsible for ensuring its app functions reliably to allow consumers to execute trades when funds are available, and must compensate for losses caused by app delays that prevent timely investment.
UpheldRedress £300Halifax Share Dealing Limited
DRN-5978314A financial services provider must reasonably assist customers in accessing information held in their account when requested, even if the provider doesn't offer the underlying service.
UpheldRedress £150Santander UK Plc
DRN-5597810A firm must communicate important changes to investment holdings in accordance with the terms of the account, and where the communication method deviates from contractual terms, the firm should compensate for resulting distress and inconven
UpheldRedress £250Freetrade Limited
DRN-6183277A platform must take all reasonable steps to collect and credit non-monetary benefits due to customers under corporate actions, even if the assets fall outside its usual operational scope.
UpheldHSBC UK Bank Plc
DRN-6188265A financial services provider is responsible for delays in portfolio transfers within its control, but not for consumer investment decisions made during the delay period.
UpheldRedress £500Dowgate Capital Limited
DRN-5241814A discretionary investment manager must obtain explicit consent from the account holder before changing their risk profile, and cannot rely on authority from a spouse without third-party authorization.
UpheldPlus500 UK Ltd
DRN-5954233A firm may terminate a client account in accordance with its terms and regulatory obligations, and is not liable for trading losses resulting from account restrictions where the consumer could not demonstrate the losses would have been avoi
UpheldSeven Investment Management LLP
DRN-5984448A provider must complete investment transfer processes with reasonable efficiency to avoid causing avoidable delay and additional costs to the customer.
UpheldSolium Capital UK Limited
DRN-6262531A share scheme administrator's exercise of commercial discretion to stagger large share sales to manage market impact is fair and reasonable where permitted by scheme terms, even if it results in lower net proceeds for the seller.
UpheldRedress £150Quilter Financial Services Limited
DRN-5975847Financial firms must balance their legal and regulatory obligations to prevent financial crime and protect customers from financial harm with their duty to provide reasonable service and support to vulnerable customers.
UpheldSt. James's Place Wealth Management Plc
DRN-6098072A financial services provider must handle client complaints professionally and acknowledge service failures, with compensation offered for breaches of confidentiality and unprofessional conduct.
UpheldRedress £300The Prudential Assurance Company Limited
DRN-5521249A trustee as the legal owner of assets held in trust has the authority to give surrender instructions to an insurer without requiring consent from the settlor or other non-trustee parties.
UpheldRedress £200Invest Protect Insure Financial Advice Ltd
DRN-6210187A firm acquiring clients from another must obtain the client's explicit agreement before providing and charging for ongoing services, and must communicate information about fees and services clearly to the client.
UpheldThe Prudential Assurance Company Limited
DRN-5944704A firm must not send erroneous correspondence about products and valuations, and compensation for distress and inconvenience should reflect the impact of misinformation rather than financial loss.
UpheldRedress £100Interactive Investor Services Limited
DRN-6184051Investment firms must provide clear disclosure of all costs and charges before executing trades so customers can make fully informed investment decisions.
UpheldRedress £150St. James's Place Wealth Management Plc
DRN-6178365A firm may fairly suspend a property fund in investors' interests where the suspension is contractually permitted, communicated transparently, and the firm applies discretion reasonably when circumstances warrant.
UpheldIG Trading and Investments Limited
DRN-5475790A financial services firm must communicate clearly and fairly when reversing dividend payments, particularly when the customer has been caused distress, and should act promptly to correct administrative errors by its custodian.
UpheldRedress £250Barclays Bank PLC
DRN-6176748A financial services firm must act in a client's best interests and provide adequate notice of corporate actions that may have tax implications, even where terms permit action without prior notification.
UpheldRedress £11,474Financial Administration Services Limited
DRN-5978807A financial services provider must maintain accurate records of policy assignments and communicate them to relevant parties to ensure clients can properly manage their investments and tax planning.
UpheldRedress £350Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited
DRN-5943466A financial services firm must respond promptly and proactively to identify customers with disabilities and provide reasonable adjustments without requiring them to repeatedly specify their needs.
UpheldRedress £750
Not-upheld complaints (25)
Assetz SME Capital Limited
DRN-6225547A peer-to-peer lending platform may temporarily modify withdrawal systems during abnormal market conditions if the original terms and conditions contained appropriate caveats about normal market conditions.
Not upheldMar 2026StoneX Financial Ltd
DRN-5096795A firm may close all open positions during a margin call if its terms and conditions clearly permit it and the action is applied fairly to the customer's circumstances.
Not upheldOct 2025Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited
DRN-6124587A firm is not responsible for postal delays when providing a courtesy prepaid envelope without a formal service level agreement, and 'priority' labeling does not guarantee next-day delivery.
Not upheldIG Trading and Investments Limited
DRN-5583769A firm's obligation to restrict access to high-risk leveraged products following disclosure of potential gambling problems applies to direct leverage provision (CFDs and spread bets) but not to complex products with built-in leverage charac
Not upheldCMC Markets UK plc
DRN-5861275An execution-only spread betting platform is not obliged to delay automatic position closure to allow time for a client to deposit funds, where the closure is in accordance with agreed terms.
Not upheldIG Trading and Investments Limited
DRN-4806228A firm is not required to verify a customer's stated income and savings figures, and changes in trading behaviour that remain within those stated parameters do not automatically trigger a duty to intervene on vulnerability grounds.
Not upheldAJ Bell Securities Limited
DRN-6202811Execution-only platforms are not required to provide warnings about corporate actions or upcoming delistings when processing share purchases, as clients bear responsibility for their own investment research.
Not upheldInteractive Investor Services Limited
DRN-6073162A firm must disclose its fee structure clearly, but applying fees on top of the stated trade value, which may push the total above a higher fee threshold, is fair if disclosed and the firm reasonably interprets the customer's instruction ba
Not upheldSt James's Place Wealth Management Plc
DRN-6252380Complaints about missed investment reviews must be brought within six years of the date the adviser should have conducted the review, or within three years of when the consumer knew or should have known a review was missed.
Not upheldBarclays Bank Plc
DRN-6171905A firm must put a consumer back in the position they would have been in but for the error, with fair consideration of any mitigating actions the consumer took that reduced the impact of the error.
Not upheldOdey Asset Management LLP
DRN-6120577The fund's board of directors, not the AIFM, had sole discretion under the prospectus to decide whether to apply for withholding tax rebates.
Not upheldPlus500UK Ltd
DRN-5509253A firm may terminate a customer's account in accordance with its terms and conditions, provided it has reasonable grounds and follows proper procedures.
Not upheldForester Life Limited
DRN-6077106A firm adequately discloses fees for international payments if it provides warning notices about potential charges, even if the specific amounts cannot be determined in advance.
Not upheldSaxo Capital Markets UK Ltd
DRN-6262956Firms are excluded from liability for operational platform failures when alternative means of managing positions are available and contract terms permit such exclusion.
Not upheldDowgate Wealth Limited
DRN-6108123A discretionary investment manager must manage a portfolio in accordance with the client's documented investment objectives and agreed mandate, exercising reasonable care and skill.
Not upheldHubwise Securities Limited
DRN-6175263A platform operator is not responsible for losses arising from a user's failure to read clear written instructions requiring action, even if subsequent system actions create ambiguity.
Not upheldEquiniti Financial Services Limited
DRN-6262505A financial services provider must give clear, fair and not-misleading information about its services, but information can be presented across multiple documents provided the consumer had access to all relevant materials.
Not upheldThe Prudential Assurance Company
DRN-6182580A firm may process a surrender instruction from an appointed trustee if the firm is not aware of a change in trustee and the instruction is also signed by the original account holders.
Not upheldHargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited
DRN-6094353A firm providing execution-only share dealing services has no legal or regulatory obligation to offer stop-loss facilities, and disclosure of limitations in terms and conditions satisfies fair treatment requirements.
Not upheldHargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Limited
DRN-6244665A financial business cannot disclaim all responsibility for third-party data displayed on its own website, but must exercise due skill and care and ensure communications are fair, clear and not misleading.
Not upheldTrading 212 UK Limited
DRN-5863418Terms and Conditions of an account override general Help Centre guidance, and a business may close positions simultaneously rather than sequentially where the contract permits.
Not upheldSt. James's Place Wealth Management Plc
DRN-6117023A firm must conduct meaningful suitability reviews to justify ongoing advice charges, and should cease charging if clients persistently decline engagement despite reasonable attempts to contact them.
Not upheldBrooks MacDonald Funds Limited
DRN-6162076An operator of an unregulated collective investment scheme has a duty to act in the best interests of the partnership, but the extent of that duty is limited by the contractual documentation governing their role.
Not upheldBrooks MacDonald Funds Limited
DRN-6162036An operator of an unregulated collective investment scheme must properly supervise delegated functions and manage conflicts of interest in fulfilling contractual duties to act in the best interests of the partnership.
Not upheldScottish Friendly Asset Managers Limited
DRN-5998802Death benefits under an investment bond policy should be calculated using the unit price at the date of death, not the date the claim is received, as specified in the policy terms.
Not upheld