"One of the UK's leading specialists in financial mis-selling…"
The Times
Financial adviser negligence can arise where advice falls below the standard reasonably expected of a competent adviser, and this causes financial loss.
When giving advice, an adviser should take reasonable care to understand your financial position, what you want to achieve and how much loss you could realistically absorb. Concerns may arise where important information was overlooked, relevant risks were not properly explained or the recommendation did not reflect what you had told the adviser.
Financial advisers may owe duties under the terms of their engagement, general law and the financial services rules that apply to the advice they provide.
In broad terms, an adviser is expected to exercise reasonable skill and care when making recommendations. Whether those duties were breached will depend on the advice given, the information available at the time and the financial consequences that followed.
Financial adviser negligence can arise at different stages of the advice process. Sometimes the problem lies in the original recommendation; in other cases, important information was not explained, adequate research was not carried out, or an agreed ongoing service was not provided.
Examples may include:
Poor pension advice can include:
Potential problems may include:
Problems can also arise after the original recommendation where an adviser has agreed to provide an ongoing service. Examples may include:
Investment losses can occur even where the original advice was appropriate. Markets rise and fall, and advisers cannot guarantee a particular return.
The question is whether there was a problem with the advice or service itself. It may warrant closer investigation where, for example, a recommendation exposed too much of your money to risk, concentrated it too heavily in one area, did not reflect what you wanted to achieve, or failed to respond to significant changes.
Check whether your adviser’s conduct was negligent — get a free assessment.
Answer a few quick questions and request a free callback. Our team will contact you for a no-obligation chat and explain the next steps.
Assessing a financial adviser negligence claim usually involves reconstructing the advice process: what information the adviser had, what they recommended, the reasons they recorded for doing so and what happened afterwards.
One of the most important documents is often the suitability report or recommendation letter. This can be particularly useful because it records the adviser’s recommendation and reasoning in writing.
Other useful documents may include:
The sequence of documents can sometimes be as important as the individual records themselves.
It may help establish what information was gathered before the recommendation was made, what explanations or warnings were provided before you committed to the investment, and whether later communications help establish how the advice process unfolded.
You do not necessarily need to have every document before making an enquiry.
You may already have useful material in old emails, investment statements or recommendation documents without realising its significance. Where records are missing, further documents may sometimes be obtained as part of the investigation.
A financial adviser negligence claim normally requires four key elements to be established.
All four elements need to be considered together when assessing whether a negligence claim is viable.
It may be worth having the advice assessed where:
The position may be more complicated where:
These factors do not determine the outcome on their own. They need to be considered alongside the documents, timeline and financial consequences of the advice.
Poor pension advice can be a form of financial adviser negligence, but pension decisions often need to be considered in the wider context of your retirement.
Decisions about how retirement savings are invested or used can affect your financial security for many years. Problems may arise where a strategy exposes your pension to losses you could not realistically absorb, does not reflect how and when you expect to use the money, or is not adjusted as retirement approaches.
Examples may include:
Some pension concerns involve more specialist issues. The right type of claim will depend on the advice involved:
For over 17 years, our solicitors have handled financial and professional negligence claims, including cases involving unsuitable investments, poor pension advice and other forms of negligent financial advice.
We’ve recovered more than £150 million in compensation for clients affected by financial mis-selling and negligence.
For the cases we agree to take on, we succeed in around 90% of them.
Where appropriate, we can handle your claim under a No Win, No Fee agreement, with the costs and terms explained clearly before you proceed.
Our firm is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA No. 468940).
Your case will be handled by an experienced solicitor who will explain the process clearly, keep you updated and remain your main point of contact throughout.
Examples of financial adviser and pension advice claims we have successfully handled.
Mr R had a pension fund worth over £340,000 and was advised to invest the full amount while drawing an income. As the fund continued to fall in value, he was advised to remain invested, delaying the purchase of an annuity and reducing the retirement income available to him. We successfully negotiated £80,000 in compensation.
Mrs L was retired and in ill health when she remortgaged her home to invest following poor financial advice. The high-risk investment failed, leaving her in a difficult financial position and ultimately forcing her to sell her home. We secured £70,000 in compensation.
Mrs H was advised to transfer her final salary pension into a SIPP and invest in a high-risk, unregulated Green Oil fund. She subsequently lost most of her pension investment. We pursued the claim and secured £90,000 in compensation.
Strict time limits apply to financial adviser negligence claims, so it is important not to delay if you are concerned about advice you received.
The relevant deadline is not always determined simply by the date the advice was given. A problem may only become apparent later, when losses emerge, or you first have reason to question what happened.
You generally have six years from the date of the negligent advice or breach of contract. Some problems are not obvious at the outset, which is why other limitation rules may also become relevant.
If you did not know about the potential negligence at the time, you may have three years from when you first knew, or reasonably should have known, that:
This can matter where you followed the advice for years before having any reason to question it.
There is also a 15-year long-stop period running from the negligent act. This means that even where a problem is discovered much later, there can still be an ultimate deadline for bringing a claim.
Different rules may apply where relevant facts were deliberately concealed or misleading information prevented you from discovering what had happened. These cases need to be considered individually.
Limitation can depend on more than one date, including when the advice was given, when loss occurred and when you first became aware that something may have gone wrong.
If you are concerned about older financial advice, it is worth checking the timeline rather than assuming the claim is automatically too late.
Financial adviser negligence can involve mainstream investments as well as more complex or higher-risk products. The examples below show some of the financial products and investment arrangements that may be involved in these claims.
Potential problems with Investment Portfolios & ISAs may include:
Some claims involve investments carrying significant risks or restrictions that were not properly explained before you invested.
Examples can include Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes (UCIS), loan notes, overseas property schemes and other speculative or illiquid investments.
The fact that an investment was high risk does not itself establish negligence. Relevant questions include whether the recommendation was appropriate for you, whether adequate research was carried out and whether important restrictions or disadvantages were properly explained.
Structured products and investment bonds can contain features that are not immediately obvious when deciding whether to invest.
Problems may arise where an adviser failed to explain:
Advice involving whole-of-life policies or other investment-linked insurance products may also warrant investigation where the product did not meet your needs, important costs or investment exposure were not explained, or the product was presented as carrying less risk than it actually did.
If negligent financial advice has caused you financial loss, compensation is generally intended to put you as closely as possible in the financial position you would have been in if proper advice had been given.
Depending on the case, compensation may include:
The amount recoverable will depend on what happened and the financial consequences of the advice.
Calculating loss often involves comparing your actual financial position with the position you are likely to have been in if the negligence had not occurred. This alternative scenario is sometimes referred to as the counterfactual.
Where expert evidence is required, an actuary or investment specialist may assess how an alternative investment or strategy would have performed and compare this with your actual outcome.
The calculation may also take account of:
Some claims can be resolved through correspondence and negotiation with the adviser or their insurers. Where agreement cannot be reached, mediation, another form of dispute resolution or court proceedings may need to be considered.
If the adviser or firm has ceased trading, other routes to compensation may be available.
You’ll have a dedicated solicitor as your main point of contact throughout your claim, with clear updates as the case progresses.
We may be able to handle your financial adviser negligence claim under a No Win, No Fee agreement, subject to an assessment of the merits of your case.
What This Means for You
There are normally no solicitor fees to pay upfront. If your claim is unsuccessful, you will not pay our solicitor fees under the agreement. If your claim succeeds, an agreed fee will be deducted in line with the terms provided before you proceed.
You’ll receive full details of the funding arrangement, including any other potential costs, before deciding whether to continue. You also have a 14-day cooling-off period after entering into the agreement.
Financial adviser negligence often sits alongside wider investment or advisory failings. If your case involves accountants, brokers or mis-sold investments, the related services below may also apply:
Yes. A financial adviser may be liable where their advice fell below the standard reasonably expected of a competent adviser, and this caused financial loss. Whether you have a claim will depend on what happened, the evidence available and the connection between the advice and your loss.
Usually, the first step is to make a formal complaint to the adviser or firm. If the matter is not resolved, other options may be available, including the Financial Ombudsman Service or a professional negligence claim.
Potentially. Poor pension advice may give rise to a claim where an adviser’s recommendation or ongoing service fell below the required standard and caused financial loss. More specialist issues involving defined benefit transfers, pension drawdown, SIPPs or annuities may need to be considered under the relevant type of pension claim.
Yes. An adviser rejecting your complaint does not necessarily mean you have no further options. Depending on what has happened, another redress route or a professional negligence claim may still be available.
Not necessarily. Many disputes can be pursued through correspondence, negotiation or another form of dispute resolution.
Court proceedings may be required in some cases, but you will be advised about your options before that stage is reached.
You may still have options. The route available will depend on the status of the adviser or firm and could include the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in some cases.
There is no fixed timescale. The length of a claim can depend on the complexity of the advice, the evidence required, the value of the loss and how the other party responds. Cases involving court proceedings will usually take longer.
This depends on how your claim is funded. Where we act under a No Win, No Fee agreement, the funding terms and any potential costs will be set out before you decide whether to proceed.
Our solicitors share practical insights from their experience of reviewing pension, investment and financial advice claims.
Is a falling pension always the sign of poor financial advice? Discover why our pension solicitors look beyond investment performance when assessing retirement advice.
Pension paperwork can reveal more than you might expect. Discover why solicitors look at the order documents were created, and what it can tell them.
Bad pension advice isn't always obvious when it happens. Discover why problems can emerge gradually and what makes people start questioning past advice.
Tim qualified as a solicitor in 1997 and has more than 25 years of experience advising clients on professional negligence, financial mis-selling and complex civil litigation matters. He oversees the firm’s professional negligence cases and advises on case strategy.
Tim has reviewed this page to help ensure the legal information is accurate, up to date and relevant to individuals considering a potential claim.
We offer a free, confidential initial assessment to help you understand your legal options.
Our specialist solicitors handle financial adviser negligence, pension and investment mis-selling claims, including cases involving unsuitable or negligent advice. We’ll give you clear, practical guidance based on what has happened and the options available to you.
Free initial consultation · No obligation · No Win, No Fee for eligible claims
Provide your details to start your free eligibility check. You’ll be guided through a few short questions so we can direct you to the right specialist and assess how we can help.
You do not need legal representation to make a financial services claim. You can complain yourself at no cost and under FCA rules, the financial services provider must provide a response. If you feel this is unsatisfactory, you can complain to the statutory redress bodies, the FOS and FSCS who can award you compensation. This is a free service.
The information appearing within this website does not constitute legal advice and is provided for general information purposes only. No warranty, whether express or implied, is given in relation to such material, and we do not accept any liability for reliance on it.
Neglect Assist is a trading style of Wixted & Co Solicitors which is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) A copy of the SRA handbook can be obtained from www.sra.org.uk. Wixted & Co Solicitors, 57 Putney Bridge Road, London SW18 1NP.
Registered number 06243291. VAT number 788 6929 41.
© 2025 Wixted & Co Solicitors
