Towry Law charging clients to quit
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’Appalled at inconsistency, lack of clarity and lack of real focus’
Towry Law has started applying transfer charges for clients leaving the firm but insists that the charges were always written into Edward Jones’ terms and conditions.
Money Marketing revealed last month that disgruntled former Edward Jones clients had set up a petition calling on the Government to force the FSA to take action after they faced delays of up to four months to transfer their funds away from the company.
Treating Customers Shabbily petition organiser John Simpson says Towry Law has now started to apply charges to transfer clients’ mutual funds to another product provider when it has not previously done so.
Towry charges £20 per fund or £57.50 for an Isa transfer.
Simpson claims Towry previously assured clients there would be no charge.
Towry says the transfer charge was always written into the terms and conditions for Edward Jones clients but the firm often did not implement the charge. The company insists that it does not make money out of the charge and says it will be waived for clients who have faced “extreme difficulties” in re-registering assets.
This week, Towry Law announced that it has cleared the backlog of account transfer requests, although there are still some issues with platform re-registration.
Chief executive Andrew Fisher says: “With hindsight, we certainly could have communicated better and reacted more quickly to what was an unanticipated problem that we encountered.”
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Readers' comments (3)
John Simpson | 5 Aug 2010 6:23 am
We're concerned that many of Towry's exiting clients may have been charged without them even knowing it. We only found out by directly challenging them to personally tell us.
We are hearing of cases where the charge has simply just been taken from any cash remaining in the client's account and, without detailed statements, without the client's knowledge.
Is it possible that clients who have faced "extreme difficulties" and complain get their charges waived, yet many who have not (yet) complained do not? Would that be fair?
Isn't it time that this 'elephant in the room' was finally put to bed. It's surely another example of why client's trust in the financial services industry appears to be taking a nosedive.
We urge any Towry clients who suspect they may have been treated badly in this way to contact us via our website at:
http://www.teatingcustomersshabbily.co.uk
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Anonymous | 5 Aug 2010 7:59 am
Sorry but Mr Simpson is wrong - Towry never said there would be no charges. The tariff rates are clearly laid out in the terms & conditions and they have not imposed anything. Mr Simpson is simply wrong - will you print anything Mr Simpson says as fact?
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Julian Stevens | 14 Aug 2010 6:48 am
One might reasonably expect £6m of annual trail in return for no service to cover amply the relatively trivial costs of releasing clients' money to be taken elsewhere. But apparently not ~ Towry Law seem keen to screw out of every client possible as much as they can legally (technically) get away with. Why is the FSA (apparently) completely unconcerned about this? It [the FSA] is forever wittering on about TCF, yet this seems to be about as un-TCF as it's possible to imagine.
Most IFA's, were they to present their services to prospective clients on the basis that this is what we charge for our initial advice and implementation but then we'll charge you some more if you're not happy with our services and want to transfer your money to another firm of advisers, might reasonably expect the great majority to say no way, Jose.
Though I consider the actions of TL to be utterly reprehensible, one wonders whether or not this nasty little clause in the EJ client agreements was drawn to clients' attention before they signed up.
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