Cofunds received more customer complaints in the first half of the year than rival platform Hargreaves Lansdown, with a greater percentage being upheld, according to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) data.
Cofunds received 3,723 complaints over the period, 3,518 related to investment products and 205 to decumulation and pension products. The regulator’s data showed 82.6% of complaints were upheld.
To put complaints in context, the FCA data also records the number of complaints per 1,000 accounts or policies in force. With regard to investments, Cofunds saw 3.7 new complaints per 1,000 accounts.
Cofunds complaints data
Hargreaves Lansdown received a total of 1,984 complaints – 1,705 across its investment products, 272 across decumulation and pension products, and seven for its banking and credit card products. Of these, more than half (55.6%) were upheld.
When put in context, Hargreaves saw 0.2 new complaints per 1,000 accounts for its investment products.
Hargreaves Lansdown complaints data
St James’s Place Plc received 956 complaints over the period – 755 related to decumulation and pension products, 159 about investments and 42 related to insurance and protection. Overall, 84.7% of these were upheld.
In context, this equated to 0.8 complaints per 1,000 accounts for investments.
SJP’s wealth management arm saw 937 overall complaints in H1 2019 – 463 about investments, 316 about decumulation and pension products, 129 about insurance and protection and 29 about home finance. Overall, 29.1% of these were upheld.
SJP wealth management gets more investment complaints
But regarding its investment complaints, this equated to 6.05 per 1,000 accounts – higher than both Cofunds and Hargreaves.
SJP wealth management complaints data
SJP’s complaints data document said: “When issues are raised, we are committed to ensuring our clients are treated fairly throughout the complaints process and we learn from the investigations we undertake. To this end, our senior management team monitors client feedback and complaints to ensure we are always looking to improve the client experience.”
Elsewhere, Invesco received a total of 1,401 complaints across its investment products over the period, 23.38% of which were upheld. This compares with 1,187 in H1 2018 when 30% were upheld.
Overall, the FCA data showed an increase in complaints from 3.91 million in H2 2018 to 4.29 million in H1 2019.
