The letter comes in response to a statement from the Financial Conduct Authority earlier this week in which the regulator urged investors to make a complaint against their adviser of they felt they had been mis-sold an investment into the Guernsey listed EEA Life Settlements Fund.
In the letter, EEA said it wanted to clarify that the fund was not directly marketed by it to retail investors and was only sold to “regulated institutional investors (such as life insurance companies) and FSMA authorised independent financial advisers, for them either to recommend the fund to investors (including certain retail investors)”.
In further defence of financial advisers, EEA added that IFAs play a valuable role.
“They enable certain retail clients (such as sophisticated individual investors and high net worth individuals) to have the opportunity to invest in a broader range of products and to diversify their portfolio in circumstances that might not otherwise be available to them…”
EEA’s letter is in response to the FCA’s highly unusual, and arguably controversial, decision to urge investors to register a formal complaint against their financial adviser if they believe they were mis-sold an investment in the EEA Life Settlement Fund.
