Thank you.

Well yes, except I will have to find out if I have to pay any tax. I have dealt with HMRC before so I'd not be too daunted by that.

I have done that. After speaking with the customer support team, they have asked me to email their address, makring it FAO the advisor and cc. to the advisors email address. Also they said to try and put it on the portal again. All of which I have now done.

honeybee13 Well if they charge me, they charge me. I've sent the written instructions to leave. Now waiting for their customer service team to ring me, as my message is not showing on the portal.

honeybee13, Thanks. I will.

honeybee13, I realise that you cannot give financial advice, but greatly value your opinions and personal experience. I will be instructing him to cash in everything, as after this experience I definitely do not want anything with them. I will contact the providers and see if they can tell me what tax I may have to pay. The advisor had said I would only pay tax on gains. I have no idea why the bonds are offshore. I will put my request in writing, via their portal, to cash in everything and pay it into my bank account. I will then put various amounts into various banks, building societies, etc. I do use the Martin Lews website a lot for various things and trust his advise, so will be checking that out for the newest and best places. I hope this will all get sorted now, without any hassle. I will let you kinow, but would like to thank you very much for your input, which has been a great help.

honeybee13, I sent a message via their portal Monday morning, that I wanted the advice he had given me in writing. He then phoned me. He said he would put it in writing and he was still trying to sort everything out with regards me possibly (I underlined this) taking everything. During the call he mentioned that the income I have each month, came from the Offshore Bonds. I cannot see that they make enough to pay me that without them going down over time, although it does depend on how well they are doing. So I said maybe once I get your written advice, we can discuss leaving just the bonds. I mentioned again about the fees of just over £3,000 and he said most of that were handling fees from the companies that had the money and that the financial advisor company took a percentage, which I knew. I said well that is irrelevant, I am still paying that amount out. This morning I get the email below from him. I have changed the text colour (to blue) of the email and of the bit I particularly think is relevant (to green). Hello Hope you are well. At present I have not given you any financial advice. As financial advisers, we are here to give you advice based on your financial circumstances as a whole, taking your financial objectives and the assets you have into consideration. From the conversations we have had I understand your objective is to surrender all of your investments and have the surrender values paid into your current account because you have decided to instead invest in deposit accounts suggested by Martin Lewis and from research you have carried out yourself. Ascot Lloyd will not make a recommendation to fully encash all four of your investments based on the information and reasons you have provided me with. My role as your adviser is to consider all of your assets and determine which is the most tax efficient and best way to achieve your objectives. If you are instructing us to encash particular investments then this is not advice, you are giving us your express instruction and we will execute this on your behalf. We will not charge you for this service as we have not provided you with any advice and we cannot comment on any potential tax implications. Alternatively you can contact your product providers directly to encash your investments and deal with them directly. Please let me know how you want to proceed and if you are giving me express instructions that you wish Ascot Lloyd to carry out in relation to these investments then please detail these instructions by responding to this email. I hope this explains everything clearly but if you have any questions please do not hesitate to come back to me. I look forward to hearing back from you soon. Kind regards [name removed - HB] Connect Independent Financial Adviser I was thinking I would leave the bonds in, but frankly with the way this has gone, I'd rather take it all. I will have to contact HMRC to find out what if any tax I have to pay, as even though I had asked for this (paying the £250 one off charge), which I assume from the email they are not going to charge me, they have not done. They seem to have basically said they'll send everything back, but won't do anything more than that. I look forward to your take on this email.

honeybee13, I will be in touch after the call. Thanks.

Honeybee13, I will do.

I have a landline.

I do not have a way of recording phone calls.

honeybee13, I have the dates, names and the gist of what was said. Their portal keeps the messages and I can do a screenshot. I will see what the advisor says when he rings. I just wanted to get some peace of mind knowing what I may, or may not actually be entitled to and whether they could indeed just dump me. I'll let you know how it goes.

honeybee13, That is interesting that there are some disgruntled clients online, but also a website with glowing reviews. No, all our discussions have been over the phone. I don't have a direct email address for the advisor, but they have a portal where I can message him. As the advisor said he would speak to someone on Monday, supposedly arguing my case and would ring me, should I wait till then? Must admit I am hoping he may well come back saying it will all go through. I am sure some clients would have been persuaded/intimidated to back down from wanting to leave with the way he was talking, but it did not work on me

honeybee13, I have just messaged you.

honeybee13, Can I message you the name of the firm?

honeybee13, Thanks for your reply. When I first invested there were two portfolios that were fixed for 5 years, but when they matured I told them I didn't want that happening again. I have cash ISAs and Stocks & Shares ISAs, as well as general stocks and shares. There are also some bonds, but the advisor said they weren't locked in. I have been looking in to various accounts at banks and building societies that I would put some of the money in, which give good interest rates and certainly better than what I have gained from it with the advisors. I've never had enough to pay tax. There are various reasons for wanting to leave, among them health reasons and the fact it has never done that well. The firm I am with is in the next town, but the advisors are all over the country. Some local but mine was a long way away. He then retired (which they didn't tell me) and now I have a different advisor everytime |I speak to them. The last one was supposed to be sorting out what I might pay tax on and which portfolios should be sorted first, etc., they take a yearly fee, which is around £3,000.00 and I had to agree to a one off £250.00 for this special advisor to get everything sortedf so I could have it all. My previous advisor had said he thought it wouldn't be worth them having my money and me paying the fees by the time I retired, which is in 7 years. If I leave it with them for 7 more years the charges add up to £21,000.00, but it is most unlikely with all that is happening in the world I would actually gain more than that. I do have a monthly amount back as income anyway. My bugbear is I pay them fees, agreed to this extra one off amount and then they say if I don't take their advice, they may drop me as a client and then it would be down to me to approach the various companies for the money. Why should I have to do that? If it turns out not to be straightforward I really don't want a lot of hassle, especially as some of my health problems can be made worse by stress. The advisor tried all sorts to persuade me not to leave. Against their advice being the one he kept saying, they think I should keep some for care home funds in case they are needed, even tried to say I wasn't really a client, as they took over the original financial advisors, but they got me to sign on with them as a new customer and I had to pay the one off new customer fee. Really feel they just don't want people taking money out, which whilst I can understand that, the money is mine and I should be able to get it, via the financial advisors that I pay. They had my money and they sent it off to the other places to be invested.

After my father passed away (2014), I put my inheritance in the hands of an independant financial advisor in 2015. I have requested I have everything back, with it being paid into my bank account. Yesterday the advisor informs me that it would go against their advice for me to take everything. Should I insist on doing this, they would terminate our client agreement and I would have to contact the various companies that have my money. Their Terms of Business say nothing about the client having to get the money back. I have paid my fees and even agreed to an additional charge for them to check if I would have to pay tax and to get it all sorted for me. I kept repeating to the advisor that it is my money and therefore I want it back and they are contracted to handle my money. Where do I stand with this? Grateful for any help.

Caro, As I will lose my means tested benefits, I will have to live off the money I get, so no real treats, but it will be nice to feel I am not taking money from the state. Thanks for your help.

I did look in the Tenancy Agreement and there's nothing about coming into money.

Thanks Silverfox. I know I am not doing anything wrong by not telling them, but at the same time don't want to rock the boat by asking a probable unnecessary question if you know what I mean.

Just thought they might say I have to either buy my own place, but as i said in my initial post that won't happen, or even go to a private landlord.

Thanks Caro. Off to have a look.

Thanks Caro. Not sure whether to ask the HA. Wouldn't want in future them to say I should have told them.

Thank you caro and Nysagmite. Now i need to go and find out what PIP is:)

I am right in thinking DLA is not means tested? Also when I retire will I still get it, or does it commute to Attendance Allowance?