HSBC: Wealth Mis-management

Everyone knows about salesmen lying to sell their products. But I have the best epitome of salesmanship fraud, if I can call it that.

Mr. M from HSBC contacted me to open my Power Vantage Account. I was offered a zero balance account plus a financial planner cum wealth manager, who will research, understand my needs and manage my investments accordingly. And the best part was that I can do everything over phone. A really smart person, Mr. M trapped me in minutes. He paid a couple of visits to my office and finally my account was opened. Soon I was introduced to my relationship cum wealth manager Ms. C.

She quickly went through my documents, existing portfolio etc and suggested me a plan with few SIPs.


I was happy for few days, assuming, I have to just call and my money is taken care of. Well, now here the problems begin...

Problem No. 1: Everything over a phone but sir every time you start or stop a SIP, buy or redeem a mutual fund you have to fill this form. For the first time she came to office to get those forms filled. After that I was asked to visit their branch. And all this process takes 3-4 days (to make a simple MF investment)

Problem No. 2: How to check my portfolio worth? Its coming soon online... It was coming soon... It is coming soon.. and it's going to be coming soon forever, I guess...

Problem No. 3: Ok, there is another way to know your portfolio value. Call up or email Ms. C and she will IMMEDIATELY mail the holding statement. But again a small problem... Ms. C doesn't pick calls, doesn't answer my SMS or email for days... Reminds you of your girl-friend.. isn't it?

Problem No. 4: Ms. C is not reachable for days... And when after trying for days, I get through her phone... She says she has quit HSBC a week back. HSBC DOESN'T finds it necessary to inform me that my RM has changed. At least someone give me the new number...


And I hold the precious PowerVantage Account with free Wealth misManagement