Case Studies

An 82-year-old woman received a letter from her friend in which the friend admitted she took $1,940 from the client's bank account before leaving the country. The client immediately informed both the police and her bank.

The clients, a married couple in their early 50s, received a $650,000 settlement from a car accident which permanently disabled the husband. They consulted with an investment advisor about how to invest the money.

The client had worked at a public utility for about 15 years when he changed careers to become a teacher. After leaving his job, the client received a benefit statement for his utility pension, which he sent to his financial advisor. The advisor told him that he could transfer the pension to a locked-in retirement account (LIRA) and helped him complete the transfer documents.

The client was a sophisticated investor, and recently started dealing with a new advisor and a new firm. Her investment objectives were 100% capital gain and she had a medium to high tolerance for risk. She also had a high level of investment knowledge and experience.

A client opened an offshore US dollar savings account through the Canadian branch of a foreign bank. For regulatory reasons, the Canadian branch's role merely to pass on the account opening information to the international head office. The servicing of the client's needs was to be done by the foreign bank directly through its call centre.

A client's small business received notice that its accounts were to be closed by the bank in two weeks. The client was shocked, saying he had a long-standing and satisfactory relationship with the bank and that the bank would not provide reasons for the termination of the relationship. The business owner, originally from a Middle Eastern country, claimed that racial profiling was a factor in the bank's decision.

The client had opened a group RESP for each of her two children with a scholarship plan dealer. After a year, she started experiencing administrative problems with the plans. The problems persisted and she was not able to get a clear explanation from the firm's telephone representatives. As a result of the problems, she incurred additional administrative fees and was unhappy with the firm. She complained to the firm and, not satisfied with its response, brought her complaint to OBSI.

A Canadian couple living in the UK had RRSPs with a Canadian investment firm. While visiting Canada, they met their advisor to discuss their accounts. They were upset because the advisor had kept their money in cash for almost a year and were also upset because for two months the money had only earned 0.25% interest. The advisor explained that he was waiting for the right time to invest and that the money had not been invested in a higher interest account because of an administrative error. He discussed some potential stock picks.

When shopping for a credit card in 1993, the client was attracted to one of his bank's cards which included a reward program for first-time homeowners. The more spent with the card, the more he accumulated reward "dollars" which could be credited toward an undiscounted (i.e. posted rate) mortgage from the bank.

The clients, a retired couple in their early 70s, were approached by an advisor who had been referred to them by a friend. The advisor recommended that they take out a $90,000 home equity line of credit and use the money to invest in various equity mutual funds. The couple had $15,000 in retirement savings and had only fair investment knowledge. Their income came from government and company pensions. Since they did not have adequate income to cover monthly interest payments on the loan, the advisor set up a regular withdrawal to be taken from the investment account.