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My friend lost £50,000 after betting on when Americans would die

The short answer to your question is to approach the financial adviser. The most likely way for your acquaintance to get her money back is if the case is deemed to be mis-selling.

If someone is sold an inappropriate investment by a UK-authorised adviser, then their case is against the firm which sold the investment, not against the firm that manufactures it.

Without prejudging the issue, I am surprised your friend was advised to invest in such a fund in the first place.

The Utopia TLP fund is based in the Isle of Man. It bought life policies of U.S. pensioners in their mid to late 70s who may have had health complications. In essence, your friend was gambling on when these pensioners would die.

And she lost.

The fund offered an income of 9 per cent to 11 per cent based on the idea that as the pensioners died and the policies paid out, the cash would flow in.

But if they lived longer, then there was a double hit: income would be less than predicted and policy premiums would still have to be paid, draining money from the fund.

As is always the case with investments that sound too good to be true, this one was — and  the fund was suspended on September  30, 2008.

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I was told by a director of the fund that assets are perhaps now worth around 35p in the £1.

Any financial adviser selling an investment offering this level of income should have taken a very close look at how it worked, analysed the risks and considered whether it was suitable for  their client.

It seems likely your friend was invested into the fund via  a portfolio bond run by her financial adviser. These paid high commissions — sometimes 6 per cent or 7 per cent of the money invested — to the adviser.

Two key questions are:

Was the advice to invest in an offshore fund appropriate for  your friend? Was her portfolio properly balanced to mitigate this extra risk?

There were plenty of warnings. By 2005, when your friend invested, the industry already had a sullied reputation.

Those running similar funds had often failed to take account of medical advances that meant people could live longer than expected, delaying the insurance payout.

Second, fraud was rife. Individuals in the U.S. would pretend to be sicker than they really were so they could sell their policies to investors and then live off the money.

Mark Dampier, of adviser Hargreaves Lansdown, warned at the time of ‘potential dangers you cannot quantify’. The fund director told me this  is being gradually run down  as people die and policies pay  out, but this could take up to ten years. However, when enough policies pay up, it will make an interim distribution.

He assured me expenses are being kept down as far as possible.

Utopia has been writing to financial advisers three to four times a year with updates, so once again we come back to the question of why these updates have not been passed on.

Contact that adviser without delay. That is where the answers will lie.

It took Santander more than two months to give me my money after I switched current accounts

On August 12 last year I went into my local Lloyds branch to open a current account. They also arranged for my Santander account to be closed and everything forwarded from it.

On September 24 I finally heard from Santander confirming the closure of my account.

I had already had to chase it four days previously when I was promised it would send me a cheque for the remaining £3,147.19 in the account.

When I chased this up on October 1, I was told the cheque had definitely been sent to me on September 20.

After further chasing I received, on October 19, a letter of apology plus £85 for the distress and inconvenience — but still no cheque.

Although I will be 90 soon, I like to think I have all my marbles. D. L., Chatteris, Cambs.

You can buy a lot of marbles with £3,147 — perhaps you should donate some of yours to Santander.

Moving a bank account is supposed to be easy these days, but your experience shows that things still can, and do, go wrong.

Santander says the cheque  was issued on September 20.  But this was still more than five weeks after you went into the Lloyds branch to move your  current account.

Industry guidelines say your new bank should open your account within ten days of your application being approved.

Your old bank has three working days to pass information to your new bank, including details of your direct debits and standing orders. However, it can take between 20 and 30 days for everything to be completed.

When you didn’t receive your cheque another one was issued, which you also did not receive.

The third one, which did arrive, was sent by recorded delivery. What happened to the other two remains a mystery.

Santander has apologised and sent you some flowers.

Straight to the point

Before Comet went into administration, I bought a £299.99 washing machine from it with my Visa debit card. It was meant to be delivered on November 8. I’m now told the machine is out of stock and a refund cannot be made. Will I ever see my money again? R. H., Torquay, Devon.

Deloitte, Comet’s administrator, confirmed you will not receive a refund. And because you used a debit card rather than a credit card, you’re not protected under the Consumer Credit Act.

However, you can reclaim your money using Chargeback. Explain the situation to your card provider and they should be able to refund you. Remember, with Chargeback you have only 120 days from the date you became aware of the problem to make a claim.

Which is the best card to load spending money on before travelling? We are going to Italy later this year so it will be in euros. H. P., Cardiff.

The FairFX Euro card has no spending or foreign ‘loading’ fees. You can top it up for free by debit card or bank transfer. The card costs £9.95 and charges €1.50 withdrawal fees at all cash machines. It has its own exchange rate.

Occasionally, comparison websites such as Moneysupermarket have offers for these cards.

My mother has savings accounts with BM Savings. She recently went into a nursing home and needs me to act for her in financial matters. I have registered power of attorney for her existing accounts, but BM won’t let me open a cash Isa for her and can’t explain why. K. B., Bucks.

Lloyds, which owns BM Savings, says under HMRC rules it needed confirmation from you explaining why your mother was in a nursing home. You have now provided this and the account has been opened.

After the state pension is reformed in 2017, will existing pensioners continue to see payouts rise each year? D. S., by email.

Nothing at all will change for those who have already reached state pension age. The basic payout will continue to rise with the higher of inflation on the consumer price index (CPI), average earnings or 2.5 per cent. Any top-ups are linked to the CPI.

I’m considering switching my current account, but I’m in the process of getting a  mortgage and the application asks how long I’ve been at my current bank. Will switching affect my chances of a good deal? L. B., Cheshire.

Switching bank accounts won’t affect your ability to get a mortgage in itself.  But if the lender is your current bank, they may be offering you a special deal — it’s worth asking.

My tip is to wait until after your mortgage is completed, because if the direct debit goes astray during the switch, it could throw a spanner in the works.

Write to Tony Hazell at Ask Tony, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email asktony@dailymail.co.uk — please include your daytime phone number, postal address and a separate note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Tony Hazell. We regret we cannot reply to individual letters. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.


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