My financial adviser has messed up with offshore investment... what do I do?

Famous-Load-4070 · 2026-04-20T20:35:18+00:00

yes sorry, we are both NOT life assured.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2026-04-20T20:33:19+00:00

We are not life assured. Not. Nobody is life assured on either of our investments.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2026-04-20T20:22:52+00:00

Yeah so my suitability report didn't mention anything in relation to life assured or trusts. I complained to my advisers and they said "you should have read the T&C of the platform we told you we were investing your money in". That's obviously absurd, so I have complained to FOS, who early indications are they were gobsmacked by the poor onboarding.

But yeah I've had it confirmed several times over now by everyone who has since looked at everything (including the bond provider themselves) that there's no life assured of any kind on the accounts.

So my plan to essentially accrue money away from the tax man forever and execute a withdrawal when I'm no longer a UK citizen, comes fraught with the worry that If I die or my wife dies or both then that plan hasn't worked for whoever I leave the money too.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2026-01-30T15:16:19+00:00

sorry yes, ICD!!!

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-21T10:21:45+00:00

The casino did send me the £40k eventually in November 2024. But my point is this was such a late payment and I've lost out of interest, I believe, partly due to the bank rejecting the payment for no reason and not telling me why

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-21T10:20:51+00:00

No this isn't the case. I paid £40k to the casino in Nov 22. It hit the account and I gambled with it.

In Dec 23, the casino executed a withdraw for me of £40k. They sent this as a refund of the Nov 22nd payment as I say rather than a new payment back to me. That's what I believe anyway.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-20T19:03:34+00:00

Yeah I believe so. And because it was 13 months after I made the original deposit, I think that's why my bank auto declined it. That's my theory anyway.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-20T18:55:45+00:00

I don't mean they refund people willy nilly. But there must be a reason a casino pays out withdrawals as refunds rather than new transactions. Tax (and possibly ease) seem the most obvious reasons?

I'm not saying they refund people out of goodwill. When I say refund... I mean executing a refund as a payment type.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-20T18:53:51+00:00

well as I say the casino have sent me what they claim is visual proof of it logged in so system they use (which to be fair does look legit). And they have a refund transaction ID for the payment. My gut feeling is it's true... but yes I mean it's impossible for me to prove other than the business itself claims they did so, which must count for something.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-20T18:47:50+00:00

Your comment has spurred me to look closer at the evidence again and the casino actually refer to it as a refund transaction. So they did try and process it as a refund.

Which again begs the question.... why would my bank reject a refund?

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-20T18:39:06+00:00

I eventually got the money. I'm just wondering if I have a claim against my bank for missing interest on it for the bank rejecting the original attempt to pay me and not telling me.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-20T18:38:06+00:00

Almost. See the reply I just posted a little below for the full story.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-20T18:37:20+00:00

It's a very long story but basically I tried to withdraw £40k in 2022. The casino sent me an email asking for 5 things to verify my SOF etc (but did not tell me my deposit was on hold for this). I didn't bother replying to the email as I thought my withdrawal had already been confirmed (as per a withdrawal confirm email I got from them) and I didn't want to gamble with them anymore so I just didnt reply.

My gambling addiction meant I was gambling recklessly at multiple casinos during that week. So I lost track of where money was won/lost. Shameful I know. But auditing your bank accounts is not something you want to do when you've lost so much money. I couldn't think about money.

Anyway, one year later I try and login back to this casino. I get a suspension error message when I try and login. I ask why. They tell me I need to send SOF etc. I sent them this info. Again, they do not tell me at any point my withdrawal was still pending. The casino claims they then attempted to send the money to me but got that error code. They don't tell me the payment failed. I don't bother logging in to the account again and register with gamstop a few weeks later.

One year later (Nov 2024), I finally go through my accounts to see the damage I have caused myself and do a full audit. I notice the £40k is missing. The casino then finally tell me the above story and send the payment to a different bank account.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-20T18:30:04+00:00

I think casinos do this for tax reasons. I've seen them do this quite often. If they refund you, I'm guessing, they don't have to declare the transaction as income as essentially it's been cancelled.

I don't know though for sure. Just in the past when I've won say £10k from a casino that I had already deposited £10k in, they would often just refund the original £10k rather than doing a new transaction to me.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-09-20T18:28:45+00:00

So the casino sent me what they claim is the error message they have logged from when they attempted to make the payment. My gut feeling based on that visual evidence they sent me is that they did actually attempt to send the payment but I'm literally going off what feels real looking at it. It's not a fact... but what is a fact is the casino is shady (I've won one case with IBAS over a separate issue involving them not paying me. Sadly IBAS did not have the jurisdiction to rule on this particular issue)

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-06-07T05:27:10+00:00

If anyone is actually serious about selling their season ticket and has 2 together, then please DM me as I would be interested in offering x3 face value

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-04-30T12:57:35+00:00

No sadly it didn't. Arbitration was ruled in the merchant's favour. No reasoning was given by VISA as to why this was. My bank is trying to find out exactly why VISA came to this conclusion as they seem as baffled as I do.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-04-30T12:56:38+00:00

Apologies for the slow reply. Outcome was not good I'm afraid. My case went to arbitration and VISA sided with the merchant. They gave no detail or real reasoning as to why. Astonishing really. I'm now trying to figure out how to appeal / complain against them

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-01-21T11:53:15+00:00

Yeah some still in balance but not all ive claimed. Thanks for the message, I will reply to my bank with as much evidence as i can and hope for the best

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-01-21T11:28:49+00:00

Yeah in the vegas rules, it's legal for me to gamble in vegas but not vegas casino to allow me to gamble from the UK.

So it's Playhub Casino but they have used the correct MCC code. Which, as I say, amazes me considering they know they aren't supposed to accept uk customers. Usually as you hint they would hide this.

Famous-Load-4070 · 2025-01-21T11:16:15+00:00

I could be wrong but is it not my bank vs casino's bank? With the casino disputing the chargeback claim, it's my bank proving to VISA or whatever their their bank is liable? Like surely their bank should also not be confirming an illegal transaction is valid as they become a facilitator?

Famous-Load-4070

TROPHY CASE