Columbia Threadneedle Investments Reviews 157

I had a simple question and I got a prompt answer

No joined up thinking, poor processes all very complaint oriented with no real ability to deal with people/circumstances especially when they don’t fill a process/compliant box!!

We have a child trust fund with them and they have been fine up until our daughter turned 18. The previous month to her turning 18 they ignored all communication from me and shut down my access to look at the fund. Then trying to get her verified took 5 weeks. Nothing was enough, we eventually had to find a policeman/solicitor/registered accountant to sign documents to verify her passport picture. Her other savings account - she could literally do it all online.
We have been trying to withdraw the funds since March and there is always some excuse - the most recent being we didn’t use her full name on the transfer forms so are going to have to do it all over again. The more they dig their heels in, the more justified she feels in transferring out her money.

This is a terrible company to work with. My Aunt passed away and I have been trying to help out my Uncle get access to the account. They were joint owners. They gave us a list of forms to fill out and we did. The first problem - this bank will only take forms with a medallion stamp. My Uncle is in a nursing home. I have power of attorney for him. I am not able to get the forms signed because the banks will not medallion stamp a power of attorney's signature.

I called Columbia Threadneedle and they instructed us to just have him sign the form. It would not be an issue because he was already an account holder. We did that, waited a month and then I called. I was told that I did not sent an original death certificate - which I disagree with because I did.

They also said they could only open an individual account and not a transfer on death account (which we had selected). For that they would need a medallion stamp. I asked if they could open an individual account and was told they could.

I sent the death certificate certified mail and they received it. This time they informed me the problem was we needed a new form for an individual account because we had selected transfer on death. This form is several pages long and the signature is on the back, can't they just reprint the 1st page and check whatever box they need? Apparently not.

I feel like this bank is making us jump thru so many hoops and is holding the money hostage. My Uncle needs $13,000 a month for long term care and this is the money that will help pay for it but he can't access it. We do everything they say but it's never good enough.

This bank also doesn't seem to know how to make phone calls. When you send something to them, they forward it to a department to process. I say process but it's really deny because they only deny things. They can't even bother to call you and tell you what they need. They forward to another department which eventually writes and mails you a letter. It will take weeks to get the letter.

I'm not sure what it's going to take for this bank to stop giving us the run around. At some point, I think will just have to get a lawyer. Whenever we do get it resolved, he's closing the account.

Stay away from this company!

Whilst attempting to transfer my investments to another provider, Columbia Threadneedle sold one of my funds without my consent and I missed out on a dividend payment as a result. It took numerous phone calls and a formal complaint to get the funds corrected to their original format and transferred out but it is over 3 months later and I am still waiting for a response regarding the missing dividend, despite phoning them regularly for updates.

Columbia Threadneedle insist on having printed forms with wet signatures sent via the post. This is such an archaic system these days which results in prolonged delays in getting anything accomplished.

I would not recommend this company.

I had taken out an investment in the 1980s with what became Columbia Threadneedle in the UK. I had forgotten about the investment and they lost track of me.

In March 2026, the agency they were using for finding such customers tracked me down. It was therefore great that the company did everything it could to re-connect such customers.

But after that, I experienced some considerable difficulties. As advised in the letter I received, I could take things forward by calling their customer service team. I did that, and was eventually able to demonstrate that I was the holder of the investment. My reference number could not be advised over the phone (fair enough), so I was told that a letter would be posted to my home address in Asia. (Until I had the reference number, there was nothing I could do with the investment.)

Nothing arrived after some time, so I called again and was told that a letter had gone out a little over a week after my first call.

A week or two later, with still nothing arriving, I then sent an email to their 'questions@' email address that I found on their website; and in that email I requested that whatever they had (apparently) sent to me in Asia also be sent to a relative in the UK - in case international mail issues were the problem.

It was another 10 days before I got any response - which simply said in an email "We want to let you know we have passed your request onto the relevant team for review and we will send further information shortly.

If you have any further questions, please contact our Service Centre quoting your reference".

Firstly, it should not take 10 days to provide a holding/acknowledgement response. But also, if the guy had read my email properly, he would have seen that what I needed was my reference!

At this point, I was losing all confidence in the company. So the next day I wrote to the head of Corporate Comms for the UK (whose email address I found on the company website).

This clearly worked. He must have forwarded it to 'Retail Escalations' and, all of a sudden, my experience with the company changed. First I got a nice email from Pauline Docherty the next day. And in her absence thereafter, I was served by Susan Harper. Susan did a fabulous job of helping me in getting all outstanding requirements (AML, etc) dealt with, and processing a withdrawal.

So having experienced a lot of frustration (it seems that no letter ever left the company to go to my address in Asia in spite of what I was told, and I still don't know why; and no letter was sent to my UK relative when I first asked for it, and I also don't know why); I then experienced gold-standard service from Susan in the Retail Escalations team. Thank you, Susan!

The person who dealt with me on the Chat Line was very helpful indeed and provided all the information I required.

I scoured the Columbia Threadneedle website for information about how to change my name, which I couldn't find. After a couple of days of messages to and fro, here is how to do it:
You need to send a printed signed letter explaining what you want to
Columbia Threadneedle Management Limited
PO Box 11114
Chelmsford
Essex
CM99 2DG
and include your original marriage certificate, not a copy. They will send it back

I read lots of bad reviews and panicked. Tried to withdraw funds and we had a few issues. However, when we spoke to customer service people they were very polite and helpful and we did finally manage to resolve the problems. They probably aren't deserving of all the people giving one star reviews...I suspect people who haven't had problems don't bother to review.

As I am now 18, I am attempting to access my child trust fund. To do this I did the online verification process whereby I uploaded a picture of my passport and a selfie. I was then told that my identity had been successfully verified. The second part of the process involved verifying my address and bank details, and in spite of entering a UK bank account I have had for several years, this process failed. I contacted Columbia as such to see if we could complete the process online but instead received a reply regarding sending certified documents to Columbia. The suggested people who could certify this include a judge or magistrate, and a senior civil servant. As an 18 year old I don’t know such people. Surely it would be much easier to retry the online verification process and get this completed. I am very frustrated in my dealings with Columbia, who are not making it easy for me to access my trust fund.

I had a simple request regarding the timing of share sales, which Luke addressed with complete clarity. It does not get much better

Positive: the help provided by Susan Harper at Retail Escalations, who cheerfully guided us through all the complexities. of a totally new experience.

Negative (hence 4* not 5): the nit-picking detail expected, causing re-submissions and consequent delays.

Used the chat to find out how to withdraw funds. Very responsive, quick and informative.

All dealt with quickly and professionally. I had anticipated problems due to the circumstances with my son’s Child Trust Fund but Pauline in Retail Escalations made the whole process as painless as possible. Great customer service.

Unfortunately this organisation holds the matured Child Trust Funds of my two now adult children. I have spent 3 months going back and forth helping my children prove their identity to this organisation so that they can access their funds. We’ve tried their online identity verification (did not work of course), offline identity certification with the help of my solicitor neighbour, that was unsuccessful too.

I’m now starting to think the whole thing is an attempt to prevent us from accessing our investments.

Excellent customer service. Fast and helpful with clear explanations. I thought it was one of those bots at first, but I was actually talking to a person, and he was super helpful.
They have summaries of the different types of accounts you could open, which have straightforward bullet points that I found quite easy to understand.

Since September 2025 to present, myself and my sister-in-law have been dealing with this company, closing her deceased mother’s account. The company sent forms, in September, to be completed. The forms were completed, a validated Medallion Seal provided and additional documents submitted. November a letter was received stating “denied”, incomplete form giving as the reason. They sent the same form and informed us to complete the again and resubmit. Again, received a letter, March 2026, “denied”, wrong form and sent a different form to complete. Appears they don’t want to release funds with the proper documents THEY provided, a Medallion Seal and additional documentation. Recommendation to people, read the reviews, 60% of reviews gives this company a one star. It seems this company doesn’t want to give out money, even though, it’s not theirs.

The investors website won't let me access all of my acount data as it used to. I went on to chat and Thomas asked various questions and arranged for my data to be made available. He was very quick, polite and helpful, so I was pleased with the response and hope it will result in what I need.

Good customer service , very friendly, patient, understanding and willing to help.