Blog: 'A bank left my new client's finances in a mess'

We recently accepted a new and relatively wealthy client, a retired lawyer worth about £2.5m. He had previously been using the services of a big corporate accountant and an investment bank. We were utterly shocked at the state of his finances. We are a provincial firm of 20 based in Barnstaple, Devon, our clients are typically retired teachers worth about £40,000 and we naturally assumed that a big accountancy firm, with its minimum investment requirements, would offer superior investment management advice. Neither the accountancy firm or investment bank had even covered the basics...