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In the latest issue of Ombudsman News, the service highlights cases relating to equity release where the complaint raised by a client's family is out of the adjudicators jurisdiction and is better suited to the courts.

Under the Financial Ombudsman Service's rules, only complaints brought by eligible complainants can be considered.

While executors are considered to be eligible complainants under the Fos' rules, beneficiaries are not.

Ombudsman News looked at a case study of a Mrs C, who named her three younger sisters as beneficiaries in her will.

However she did not tell her three sisters that, after seeking financial advice, she had entered into a home reversion plan.

When Mrs C died, some years after the plan had been set up, her sisters found out about the arrangement from the executor of her will, a local solicitor.

The three sisters were shocked to discover the firm that had given the financial advice was now entitled to most of the proceeds from the sale of Mrs C's house.

When that firm refused to consider their complaint that it had wrongly advised their sister, they referred the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

However, Fos stated it could not consider this case as the complaint did not fall within its jurisdiction.

But the ombudsman stated even if the complaint had been within its jurisdiction, it would probably have decided it was more appropriate for the courts to deal with it.

This was because as well as disputing the advice provided by the firm, the sisters were in dispute with each other and with the executor about how much of Mrs C's estate they should each be entitled to.

The ombudsman stated: "Firms offering equity release schemes generally advise homeowners to discuss their intentions with family members before committing themselves. It is, however, entirely a matter for the individual concerned whether or not they wish to do this.

"As our case studies illustrate, some of the complaints we see are made after the death of someone who signed up to one of these schemes.

"It may only be at that stage that a family member discovers that a financial firm has a substantial interest in the property they had been expecting to inherit in its entirety."

For more case studies relating to how the Financial Ombudsman Service handles complaints about equity release advice visit www.financial-ombudsman.org/publications/ombudsman-news/72/72-mortgages.html