The Financial Ombudsman Services saw a 166% rise in complaints over the mis-selling of stocks and shares ISAs in the last year. The FOS received 200 complaints – an increase from 75 in the previous year.
The figures were obtained via a Freedom of Information request by digital wealth management company MoneyFarm.
Examples of the complaints made against stocks and shares ISA providers or financial advisers included the deliberate exaggeration of the expected returns of the ISA or the deliberate playing down of the risks involved in a stocks and shares ISA, MoneyFarm’s report stated.
According to the wealth firm, data previously provided to it by the FOS indicated that there have been increasing concerns over the level of risk taking by ISA fund managers. These showed, according to the firm, a 67% increase in the number of complaints relating to excessive risk taking by ISA providers rising from 280 in 2014 to 467 in 2015.
MoneyFarm claimed that the rise in concerns over the risk taking in ISAs, was in part, down to a “basic failure by many fund managers to diversify and by an unwillingness of fund managers to provide ISAs that more closely match the risk profile of investors”.
Paolo Galvani, chairman and co-founder of MoneyFarm, said: “It is a concern if the incidences of ISA mis-selling are rising.
“Most people who invest in ISAs do not want to take on excessive risks. However, the UK fund management industry still has too much of a concentration in UK equities which leads to excessive volatility and poorer returns.
“Technology means that fund managers should be able to closely match the risks involved in an ISA portfolio with the carefully assessed risk appetite of the individual investor – so mis-selling shouldn’t even have to be a problem. The modern asset manager should have a product that suits the entire spectrum of investors.”
MoneyFarm claimed the rise in sales of ISAs that might be unsuitable for the client’s financial situation or against the client’s stated investment aims has also been partly driven by high fees, and commissions that some ISAs providers still charge – giving sales executives a strong financial motivation to mis-sell.
The company called for the wealth management sector “to do more to ensure that advisors remain objective and are always acting in the best interest of their clients”.