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On the rare occasion that a professional adviser makes a mistake or behaves improperly, clients should be able to be confident of being compensated in full. A recent case shows how a client's potential loss at the hands of identity fraudsters was met by insurers. The case concerned a highly experienced solicitor with an unblemished professional history who worked for a law firm as a consultant. In the context of what she believed was a legitimate application for a short-term business loan, she had been duped by identity fraudsters. A...

We have often written about the dangers of taking advice from unqualified and/or unregulated advisers. A recent change in the regulations surrounding financial advice will cause some concern for those with friends or relatives who may be influenced by non-tailored advice to take actions that could later prove to have been ill-considered. The changes relate to what may be considered to be 'financial advice'. The UK definition is currently very broad in scope and is not in alignment with the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. However, that will change...

A person who voluntarily prioritises their marriage over their working life may not be entitled to compensation for the earnings foregone if their relationship ends in divorce. The Court of Appeal made that point in ruling on the case of a former headteacher who abandoned her career when she married a doctor who was 16 years older than she. The woman was in her 40s when she married the semi-retired doctor. She gave up her job as head of a primary school and subsequently only worked as a supply teacher....

Where there is money, there is opportunity for wrongdoing and a steady stream of cases show that vigilance is needed to prevent the assets of the deceased or elderly being misappropriated. In one case, three cleaners of a deceased South Wales man claimed to have found a copy of a will he was purported to have made which divided his £320,000 estate between them, allegedly in appreciation for their assistance in housekeeping in his final years. Probate was granted and the three women were beginning to help themselves to the...