CompaniesSep 2 2014

Hargreaves new entrant in Fos complaints league

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Hargreaves Lansdown has entered the Financial Ombudsman Service’s group of most complained about adviser firms for the first time, however its complaints uphold rate was less than 20 per cent.

While Sesame still lead the way with 197 complaints in the first six month of this year, Hargreaves Lansdown was the fifth most complained about firm with 48 complaints.

The top four most complained about adviser firms - Sesame, Openwork, St James’s Place and Personal Touch - have all significantly reduced their number of complaints. The Fos data lists only those businesses which have 30 or more complaints in the six month period.

Sesame dropped 33 per cent from 292 complaints in the first half of 2013, Openwork’s 73 complaints this half was a 49 per cent drop from 142 in the first half of 2013, St. James’s Place’s 77 complaints this year was down 21 per cent to 97 in the first six months of 2013 and Personal Touch had 55 complaints from January to June this year, down 38 per cent on the 88 recorded in the the same period in 2013.

Interactive Investor had 43 complaints compared to 59 in the first half of 2013, down 27 per cent.

Positive Solutions saw complaints fall 29 per cent compared from the slightly from 44 in the first half of this year, compared to 49 in the same period last year of.

However, the network came out worst in terms of uphold rates, losing 64 per cent of all complaints cases during the period.

This was followed by St James’s Place uphold rate of 42 per cent, Personal Touch with 29 per cent and both Sesame and Interactive Investor on 26 per cent. Openwork had 21 per cent of complaints upheld, while Hargreaves Lansdown lost only 17 per cent.

The most complained about mortgage providers were Bank of Scotland with 1,062 complaints during the first half of this year, followed by Santander UK with 753, Barclays Bank with 503, Legal and General with 447 and Northern Rock with 372.

In terms of life and pensions providers, the most complained about was Prudential Assurance Company with 330 complaints during the first half of this year, followed by Phoenix Life with 327, Aviva Life and Pensions with 230, Royal London with 197 and Sun Life Assurance with 175.