Responding to questions on notice from the House economics committee, IOOF revealed it had received 214 complaints through internal dispute resolution in the year to June 2020, 21 per cent of which related to inappropriate advice.
A further 39 per cent of complaints related to service delivery, and 23 per cent were about disclosure of fees.
IOOF said 172 of these complaints had been finalised, with the majority (94) resolved in favour of the business. A further 75 had been resolved in favour of the client and three complaints were still under negotiation.
The wealth institution further revealed that another 47 customer complaints had gone to AFCA in the 2020 financial year, 36 per cent of which related to the quality of advice received by customers.
Another 32 per cent of the AFCA complaints related to service delivery, while 13 per cent related to disclosure of fees.
IOOF said 25 of these complaints had been finalised, with 15 being resolved in favour of the client and five complaints resolved in favour of the business.
A further four complaints were withdrawn, while one was found to be outside of AFCA’s terms of reference.
This compares with the 81 complaints AMP recently revealed it had received through internal dispute resolution in the 2020 calendar year, with six complaints going to AFCA.
Themes reported by the wealth institution similarly revolved around appropriateness of advice and fees for service.
So what i’m taking from this is that most complaints were unjustified based on their result. And that the number per size of the business is actually relatively low…just makes for a good headline.
Alternatively, you could look at it from the angle of while there was only a small percentage of clients that had the courage to make a formal complaint, nearly half of these were justified. The question then becomes how many of their client’s could make a justified claim if they a) realised they were being given poor advice or b) could understand the real extent of the fees they were being charged.
You absolute Muppet! If you think these complaint numbers or percentages are acceptable for a financial services company you are either seriously deluded or part of the retail/for profit culture.