Mis-sold ISA and fund claims: the tax wrapper is not the issue.

Two ISAs can look identical on a statement and be entirely different investments. Identify the actual holdings: the funds, the strategies, the risk ratings. Then identify the cost of each layer — the platform fee, the fund ongoing charge, any advice charge, and any dealing or exit cost. Complaints about charges usually get stronger once the layers are added up rather than looked at one by one.

An attitude-to-risk questionnaire records what you were willing to accept. It does not record what you could afford to lose. Where savings held for a short-term purpose were invested for the long term, or where a cautious saver was placed in a volatile fund, the mismatch between the money’s purpose and the product’s horizon is often the clearest part of the case.

A recommendation to move out of an existing holding is a recommendation in its own right, and it needs its own justification. Was there an exit cost? Was the old holding cheaper? Was the switch motivated by a charge payable to the firm? Ask for the switch analysis, and for any commission or fee disclosure that accompanied it.

Banks and platforms often record a sale as execution-only when the customer reasonably thought they were being advised. That single record decides how the complaint is argued, so get it before you write. If the firm says you chose without advice, ask what it did to make that clear to you at the time.

Loss here is usually the difference between your position and the position suitable advice would have produced — commonly a comparable holding, or the original investment had it been left alone. That calculation needs documents, not estimates, which is why the checker deliberately never produces a figure.