Capital protected structured investments
Do you feel you were wrongly advised to invest in a capital protected structured investment?
On this page you'll discover whether you can bring a complaint about your capital protected structured investment to us and what will happen if you do.
On this page
Handling investment complaints?
What are capital protected structured investments?
If you invest in a capital protected structured investment, you will always get your money back because the money you put in is protected. You may also get a return at the end of the investment period, depending on how it has performed.
But anything you might get on top of your capital is usually linked to shares, whose performance can go up and down.
That means the risk involved with a capital protected structured investment is similar to investing in the stock market. And that risk is greater than the risk of putting your money in an ordinary savings account.
Can you complain about your capital protected structured investments?
You may decide to bring a complaint to us because you think it wasn't a good investment for you. You may feel the advice you got from a financial adviser or product provider was unsuitable because:
- the product wasn’t suited to your circumstances
- the literature provided by the financial business wasn’t clear
- you wouldn’t have invested in the product if you’d known the return would be so low
- the risks weren’t properly explained
- the sale was suitable, but the amount you invested was too high
If you’re unhappy with advice you’ve received or that you were misled into investing, you can bring your complaint to us.
How to complain about your capital protected structured investment
Our service is free and easy to use.
- Before bringing your complaint to us, you should make a formal complaint to the company involved.
- If they don't send you a final response letter within eight weeks – or you're unhappy with their response – you can complain to an ombudsman.
- Our complaint checker will tell you more about some of the things we need to know upfront to help you get ready to send us your complaint.
- Fill in our online complaint form. Your case will be assigned to a case handler who will get in touch when they start to investigate.
- To help us consider a complaint fairly, we may ask you to provide more information to help us understand what happened.
How we resolve complaints about capital protected structured investments
We’ll make our decision about what happened using evidence from you, the financial business and any relevant third parties. To reach a decision, we'll also consider:
- the relevant law
- any regulations that applied at the time
- any industry codes of conduct in force at the time
- your investment experience and you attitude to risk
- whether you understood there was a risk you’d get little or no return
- whether the business adequately explained the risks – referring to the sales literature isn’t usually enough
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Whether the advice was suitable depends on the circumstances of each case, but we will look at:
- if you wanted capital protection
- your investment objective, that is, why you wanted to invest and what you wanted to achieve from the investment
- your attitude to risk and whether the level of risk was right for you
- how much money you could afford to invest
- where the investments were made
We’ll want to know whether the business:
- explained the level of risk involved
- made sure you understood how the product worked and or had invested in similar products before
- had highlighted how the product might affect your tax bill
- told you about any surrender penalties
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In these cases, we’ll look at whether the finance firm led you into buying the investment in any way. If we think they did, we’ll look into whether they explained the product properly. We'll want to know everything about the sale - how it happened and what was said, including any evidence or documents
If we believe the firm did advise you, then we'll look into whether it made sure that advice was suitable. Each case is different, so what we need to consider depends on the complaint. However, we might look closely at any booklets or other literature you were given about the investment and whether it clearly explained:
- the way the return is calculated
- the maximum potential return
- features like averaging, management strategies and the impact of these features on performance
- the risks carried by the underlying indices
- what would happen at the end of the term
- any charges or surrender penalties
We'll tell you whether we believe you've been treated unfairly or not. If we don't uphold your complaint, we'll tell you why and explain how we reached our decision.
If we think you've lost money because you received the wrong investments advice, we'll tell the firm involved to put things right.
We may also tell them to pay you compensation for any distress or inconvenience you have suffered.
Case studies
Bank advises customer suitably despite low return
Investments Banking
Compensation awarded when bank fails to fully explain investment options
Further information
More about capital protected structured investments and other high-risk investments on the MoneyHelper website
