Complain to the firm
Free, and it is the step that unlocks the Ombudsman. The firm has to deal with it fairly, consistently and promptly, and normally has eight weeks to give you a final response in writing.
01 What is financial mis-selling
Financial mis-selling, explained in plain English.
Mis-selling is not the same thing as losing money. Investments can fall in value for reasons nobody is to blame for. Mis-selling is about how the product was sold: whether it suited you, whether the risk was explained fairly, and whether what you were told matched what was written down. This page is the front door to the rest of the site, and it also holds our glossary.
Short answer
Financial mis-selling is when a financial product or service was sold to you in a way that did not meet the rules. Usually that means the product was unsuitable for your circumstances, the risks were not explained fairly, or the promotion was misleading. Whether you may have a claim depends on what was said, what was written down and when it happened.
Indicators only. Not legal or financial advice. Not a prediction of outcome.
01 Is this you?
Tick what fits.
A claim is worth pursuing when the facts line up. These are the facts that matter most for this product. If three or more describe your situation, the checker is worth five minutes.
- The product was riskier than you would have chosen if the risk had been explained in plain terms.
- You were told, or left to believe, that your money was safe, guaranteed or low risk.
- The recommendation took up most of your savings, or most of your pension pot.
- You needed the money at a point in time, and the product could not be sold when you needed it.
- You were contacted rather than doing the contacting, and the sale moved quickly.
- The charges, and any exit penalty, only became clear after you had signed.
- You cannot find a written suitability report explaining why the product was right for you.
- You do not know whether the firm that sold it was authorised to do what it did.
02 How it works
How a claim works for this product.
Separate the outcome from the sale
The first question is never “did I lose money?”. It is “what was I told, and did that match my circumstances and my paperwork?”. An investment that lost money can have been sold perfectly properly; an investment that made money can still have been mis-sold. Keeping those two questions apart is what stops a complaint drifting into an argument about market performance, which is not what a complaint is about.
Find out who was accountable
There is a difference between the firm that gave you advice, the firm that arranged or administered the product, and the firm whose name is on the platform. A complaint goes to the firm that recommended or sold the product to you. Where a firm has since failed, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme may be the route instead — but only in defined circumstances.
Check whether the firm is authorised and still trading
Use the FCA Firm Checker to see whether the firm is authorised today, and what it is permitted to do. Check the FCA’s warning list for published warnings. If the firm was never authorised, or has been declared in default, the analysis changes completely — see the scams pillar and the FSCS guide.
Test the sale against the suitability tests
Our claim checker runs eight questions that mirror the questions a firm or the Ombudsman will ask: risk against stated appetite, concentration, access to the money, the objective it was meant to serve, how the risk was described, whether costs were disclosed, whether anyone advised at all, and whether there was pressure or reliance. Each one produces a flag with its reason, not a score.
Work out which route fits, and what the clock says
There are three practical routes — complain to the firm, escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service, or go to court — plus FSCS where a firm has failed. They have different deadlines, different limits and different rules about who can use them. The routes comparison and the time-limit guide cover both.
03 The clock
Time limits are the first thing to check.
- Firm complaint: the FCA’s stated position is that you normally need to complain within 6 years of the problem happening or, if later, within 3 years of becoming aware that you had cause to complain.
- Ombudsman: firms must normally give you a final response in writing within 8 weeks, and you need to contact the Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving that response.
- FSCS: there is no single deadline for everyone — it depends on when the firm failed and when you could reasonably have known. Check the scheme’s own guidance for the firm in question.
- Court: for negligence the period is 6 years from the cause of action or 3 years from the date of knowledge, whichever is later, with an overriding 15-year longstop from the act or omission.
- Not knowing is not a defence for the other side: where you could not reasonably have known about the problem, the “date of knowledge” is the date that matters — and that is a question of fact worth taking advice on.
04 The routes
Which route fits your facts.
Financial Ombudsman Service
Free to consumers, independent, and it decides cases on what is fair and reasonable as well as what the rules say. For complaints referred on or after 1 April 2026 about acts or omissions on or after 1 April 2019, the award limit is £455,000.
FSCS or the courts
FSCS pays where an authorised firm has failed, up to £85,000 per eligible person, per firm for firms that failed after 1 April 2019. Court is for loss above those routes, or where a firm disputes a claim you are entitled to bring — and it is the only route where a lawyer is usually essential.
05 Evidence
Documents to gather.
You do not need everything before you start. But a complaint that names dates, amounts and documents is much harder to answer with a template letter.
- The written recommendation or suitability report, if one was given
- The application and transfer forms you signed, and their dates
- Key information documents, terms and the product’s stated risk rating
- Statements or valuations showing what you paid in and when
- The charges schedule and any exit penalty wording
- Emails, texts, letters, call notes and any marketing material from the sale
- Anything you have already sent to the firm, and any reply
- The firm’s final response letter, with its date, if you have one
06 Questions
Questions people ask about this product.
What counts as a mis-sold investment?
An investment was mis-sold if the way it was sold broke the rules that applied at the time. In practice that means the product did not suit your circumstances, the risks were not explained fairly, the promotion was misleading, or the charges were not made clear before you committed. Losing money is not, on its own, mis-selling.
What are my rights if I have been mis-sold a financial product?
You have the right to complain to the firm without charge, and to take an unresolved complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is also free to consumers. Where an authorised firm has failed, you may be able to claim from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme instead. Where neither applies, the courts remain open to you, subject to time limits.
Does the Financial Ombudsman Service cost anything?
No. The Ombudsman is free to consumers, and you do not need a solicitor or a claims management company to use it. That is worth repeating, because a great deal of marketing is designed to suggest otherwise.
Is mis-selling the same as bad performance?
No, and the distinction matters. FSCS cannot accept claims that are only about poor investment performance. A complaint has to be about how you were sold the product — what you were told, what was written down, and whether that fitted your circumstances.
Can I complain about something that happened years ago?
Possibly. The FCA’s stated position is that you normally need to complain within 6 years of the problem or, if later, within 3 years of becoming aware that you had cause to complain. For court claims, section 14A of the Limitation Act 1980 allows 6 years from the cause of action or 3 years from the date of knowledge, with an overriding 15-year longstop.
Do I need a solicitor?
Not for a firm complaint or for the Ombudsman, which are both designed for people to use directly. A solicitor becomes important where the loss exceeds what the Ombudsman can award, where a firm disputes a statutory claim, or where you are pursuing a group claim. See the guide to what a claims management company may charge before you appoint anyone.
Can I complain to the FCA directly?
The FCA does not resolve individual complaints and will not order a firm to pay you. What it does do is supervise firms, and it acts on reports about misleading financial promotions and unauthorised firms. Use the FCA for that; use the firm and the Ombudsman for your own loss.
What is restitutio in integrum and why does it matter?
It is the Latin phrase for restoration to the position you were in before the wrong. It is the principle behind most compensation: putting you back where you would have been, rather than rewarding you. It also explains why compensation is usually calculated by valuing what your money would be worth had you been given suitable advice, which is exactly how the Ombudsman describes the exercise.
Glossary
- Suitability
The test of whether a recommended product fitted your circumstances, objectives and attitude to risk. Suitability is judged at the point of sale, on what the firm knew or should have known then — not on how the investment later performed.
- Attitude to risk
A description of how much risk you were able and willing to accept, usually recorded by the firm after a questionnaire. If the recorded attitude to risk is cautious and the product was high risk, that mismatch is the heart of many complaints.
- Execution-only
A transaction carried out on your instruction without a personal recommendation. The firm still has duties — including on financial promotions and on how it handles your order — but a suitability complaint is argued differently.
- Risk warning
A statement of the ways the product can lose money. The question in a complaint is rarely whether a warning existed, but whether it was prominent, specific and capable of being understood by the person being sold to.
- Concentration
How much of your total savings or pension sat in one product, one provider or one strategy. A product can be suitable and still be unsuitable if it took most of your money.
- Liquidity
How quickly and cheaply you can turn the investment back into cash. Long lock-in periods and exit penalties matter most where the money was earmarked for income, care or an emergency.
- Final response
The firm’s formal written answer to your complaint. The date on it starts the six months you have to take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
- Section 138D claim
A statutory claim for damages where a firm’s breach of an FCA rule caused a private person loss. It sits alongside a common-law negligence claim and is often pleaded together with it.
- Date of knowledge
The date you first had enough knowledge to bring a claim: the facts about the damage, that it was attributable to the act or omission complained of, and the identity of the party responsible. It matters because it can extend the three-year period in negligence claims.
- FSCS
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the statutory scheme of last resort for authorised firms that fail. It pays defined limits and cannot accept claims that are only about poor investment performance.
Sources
Every rule, limit and deadline on this page comes from the official sources below. Each was read on the date shown. Where we could not verify a rule against the official text, we have left a visible instruction to confirm it rather than describing it from memory.
Financial Conduct Authority
Checked 12 October 2026 — The complaint process, the eight-week final response and the six-month window to go to the Ombudsman.
Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, section 138D — Actions for damages
legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives)
Checked 12 October 2026 — The statutory right of a private person to sue for loss caused by a firm’s breach of an FCA rule.
Limitation Act 1980, section 14A — special time limit for negligence actions
legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives)
Checked 12 October 2026 — Six years from the cause of action, or three years from the date of knowledge if that is later.
Limitation Act 1980, section 14B — overriding fifteen-year time limit
legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives)
Checked 12 October 2026 — The absolute fifteen-year longstop for negligence claims that do not involve personal injury.
Understanding compensation for financial loss
Financial Ombudsman Service
Checked 12 October 2026 — Award limits for cases referred to the Ombudsman, and how compensation and interest are worked out.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
Checked 12 October 2026 — Investment compensation limits per eligible person per firm, and what FSCS cannot cover.
MIS-SOLD INVESTMENT / CLAIM CHECKER
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Canonical: https://mis-sold-investments.com/what-is-financial-mis-selling/