Complaints

Rathbones Investment Management International Limited (RIMI) always strives to deliver the best possible service, however, if you believe we have fallen short of these high standards, we would like to hear from you. This will give us an opportunity to put the matter right and learn from the experience to further enhance the service we offer our clients.

Who should I complain to?

If you would like to express dissatisfaction about any aspect of our services or products, then you can raise this either to your usual point of contact at Rathbones or you can use one of the following means of contact:

When you do contact us, we would ask you to provide a full description of your concerns and also how you believe the matter can be resolved.

It is important to note that it will not cost you any money to make a complaint. Please note that we have a formal complaint handling process that allows for your complaint to be managed in line with Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) and Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) regulatory requirements and the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman's model Complaint Handling Procedure for Financial Service Providers.

That process is designed to allow clients to raise a complaint without any specialist knowledge or advice. As such, we therefore ask that you allow the complaints process to be concluded before you involve any third parties; while involvement of any such third parties during the complaints process remains at your discretion, please note that Rathbones will not meet the costs of such third party involvement.

Further information from the regulators and CIFO can be found below;

• JFSC: Making a complaint about a financial services business

• GFSC: How to make a complaint

• CIFO: For Consumer 

What will happen when we receive your complaint?

The complaint will be passed to the dedicated Complaints team within the Compliance department.

Our acknowledgement to you will outline the nature of the complaint as it is understood by us and the steps that we will be taking to resolve it. If you believe that we have misinterpreted the nature of your complaint, then please contact us immediately.

It is our aim to resolve client complaints as quickly as possible and within 8 weeks from when your complaint was received.

Investigating your complaint

At the investigation stage, your complaint will be allocated to a dedicated Complaint Case Handler who will be responsible to fully investigate your complaint.

The Complaint Case Handler will, in line with the Rathbones’ Complaint Handling procedures and complete a review of all records and information relevant to your complaint. In some cases, we may require further information from you to enable us to fully investigate your complaint. Should this be the case, we will contact you for further details.

Responding to your complaint

Once we have completed our investigation, we will send you a final response to your complaint. The final response letter will include:

• a summary of our investigation and findings;
• a decision of whether the complaint is being upheld or not. In either case we will outline our rationale of why;
• if relevant, details of redress. We will also outline the amount along with an explanation of rationale; and
• the options available to you should you remain dissatisfied. This will note that you may be able to refer your complaint to the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman or take civil action

Along with our final response letter we will provide details of the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman and advise you that, if you decided to do so, you must refer the matter to the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman within six months of the date of our final response letter, in order for them to have our permission to consider your complaint.

If we have determined that redress is due to you, we will also enclose an acceptance form. To initiate this payment, we require you to complete and return the acceptance form.

In limited cases we may not be able to fully respond to your complaint within 8 weeks from the date of receipt. In these circumstances, we will write to you outlining why and when we expect to be able to provide a final response. If this is the case our letter will also outline that you may be able to refer the complaint to the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman.

What do I do if I am not satisfied with the outcome of my complaint?

If you are unhappy with our response, you may be able to take your complaint to the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman or take civil action. Access to the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman is free of charge and available to eligible complainants as by the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman.

Rathbones Investment Management International Limited is authorised and regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. The Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman is the joint operation of two statutory ombudsman roles, established by the Financial Services Ombudsman (Jersey) Law 2014 and the Financial Services Ombudsman (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2014. It is a free service that resolves complaints about financial services provided in/or from the Channel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark.

It is important to note that the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman is unlikely to consider a complaint before a final response has been provided or 8 weeks has elapsed since Rathbones Investment Management International Limited received your complaint, unless Rathbones Investment Management International Limited agree to this.

How to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service

Non-eligible complainants

Complaints received from clients who do not meet the CIFO’s definition of an eligible complainant, will be handled by Rathbones in the same way as outlined above. However, non-eligible complainants will not have access to the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman.