Columbia Threadneedle Investments Reviews 157

Prompt help with setting up a LISA and depositing funds - thank you!

I wrote to Columbia Threadneedle complaining about my investments changing to support the armaments industry. I received acknowledgements & tremendous help changing my investments to more sustainable ones, & was taken step by step through the extensive online bureaucracy by Susan Harper to avhieve that aim. It has restored my faith in Threadneedle as a responsible, careful, trustworthy investment company . Thankyou

My son had a child trust fund maturing and the whole process of obtaining the proceeds was very difficult. First off the digital ID verification system on the website did not work. It looked like the photo ID/passport verification worked but I was informed later that it hadn’t. They should state clearly that it is unlikely the digital ID verification system will work for children with maturing child trust funds and save people the time trying to use it but then getting lots of error messages. After this, the process was very cumbersome to post off the identification documents, to top it off they would not refund me for my postage cost for sending my son‘s passport guaranteed/tracked delivery. Very poor experience overall.

Shocked to see such a low rating but my experience falls even below the average
They are so bad that they should be heavily fined or closed down for the most terrible experience

Decent range of products. Enough to provide a selection and not too many to become impossible to choose.

Very quick and helpful

A chat line that actually works! Quick response and got the answer to my questions.

After the death of my mother I was sole beneficiary of her trust funds. My case involved an extraordinary amount of paperwork to have these funds released..no fault of threadneedle!!
I found them to be helpful and considerate.
Special mention to the manager of Retail Escalations Susan H. As my case was complicated it was elevated to head office. She was brilliant.

I used the Chat facility to make an inquiry, it was answered immediately & professionally. The information was just what I needed.

I wanted to buy and sell some shares, I needed to know what was happening and I got through straight away for an answer

A new experience for me in that I had to download a tax voucher but didn’t know where it would be sent to. Luke carefully guided me through where it would go, why it might not download and told me what steps to take to ensure that it would download. Listed the steps to take, worked first time with no issues to follow up. Luke certainly knows his stuff!

Companies like this should no longer exist. Dinosaur. Their digital systems do not work properly. Broken identity verification, broken functions like add a bank account. Error messages popping up everywhere. Eventually I spoke to a human who sounded completely disinterested and said someone would look into these problems over the next 10 days!

This company will do everything they can to give you the run around and keep your money in their accounts for as long as possible. I have been trying to liquidate money from an UTMA account for 3 months, and there is no way to do this process online. It must be through documents you have to pay to mail to them (with your SSN and SSN of a relative if your account was made by the relative), and they take their sweet time to review the documents. If there is an issue, they leave it up to you to get impatient and call them back, as they don't want to call you themselves, and they refuse to do anything through email for "security" reasons. For my account, I have been given exception to use a notary stamp for my documents instead of a medallion stamp, since I'm unable to acquire a medallion stamp unless I drive a 2500 mile round trip to the nearest location of my bank. Despite having this exception, my documents have been rejected TWICE due to having a notary stamp. There is a clear lack of communication between people in this company that give the exception and the people that check the paperwork and mail the checks. Once I am able to voodoo magic my money out of this company, I will be telling everybody possible to keep their money away from this company, as it will take many months and a hundred phone calls to get it back.

Like many of the other reviewers, I have found this company very difficult to deal with when it comes to closing a CTF.
On the phone, when I asked if a senior social worker could verify the ID document, they said they would consider each one on an individual basis. Of course, when they received the verified document, we were told, no - it had to be someone on their accredited list. They could have told us that on the phone beforehand!
I can see that 90% of their reviews are 1 star but they do not seem to care.
Communication is generally poor, though it does depend on who picks up the phone: some of the operators are better trained than others.
When it comes to getting the funds from the CTF, my advice would be: contact them early, and start compiling and sending the ID documentation way ahead of time - several months before your child's 18th birthday if you can. Follow the information on how to verify the documentation to a 'T' - there is absolutely no wriggle room allowed - read the whole anti-money laundering page through and take copious notes. They tell you what to do in 2 separate places on this webpage, both descriptions contain slightly different information, so read both thoroughly. Don't wait for Columbia Threadneedle to get back to you - ring them to see if things have been received/checked/ processed etc. Get the name of everyone you speak to.
In contrast, my partner recently had such a straightforward experience getting documents verified via an online system with a different company, for a property purchase... it feels as though Columbia Threadneedle are making things deliberately as complicated and convoluted as possible.
Good luck - once you do receive the funds, the relief that you will not have to deal with this company again is at least as rewarding as your child receiving their money :-D

Columbia lacks the ability to upload forms. Forms cannot be completed online and must be mailed. These are forms requiring social security numbers. Antiquated!

My daughter has a child trust fund which has matured. We have updated all records and requested a liquidation. So far they have lost bank account details sent by email once (and then asked us to write to them!). Then we passed security twice and then third time they don't know why we didn't passed security. Online they can't answer questions about the accounts even though we have been through 2FA. Columbia Threadneedle is the worst of all the fund managers our family have dealt with just because they score own goals. Our complaint to them has been answered by snail mail - do they realise that the internet is not an inconvenience for them. At least they pick up the calls we make - but we wish they could answer ANY questions on why we can't get her money out.

Sadly trying to deal with my mother's estate and transfer investments as the executor. This has been the most difficult process by a company with call centre staff showing little empathy or willingness to facilitate the process. Other companies have far superior processes in place, but Columbia Threadneedle need to look at staff training and proper procedure for people dealing with a death.

I'm not one to usually write reviews and truthfully, the only reason that I got to this forum is because I Have had two horrendous experiences with Threadneedle. I am no stranger to the world of banking or investment companies and I have been shocked by Columbia Threadneedle. I truly hope somebody sues them in the future for the trials and tribulations they subject people to when you try to get your funds out.

If you haven’t invested with them yet I implore you to stick with Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab or one of the the other firms that play by industry rules.

I see Columbia reply to the all the one start reviews with

Columbia Threadneedle Investments logo
Reply from Columbia Threadneedle Investments
5 days ago
Good morning, sorry to hear of your experience. Can you please ask your daughters to contact us on …and we will get this sorted for them both. Thanks

When you do respond to their email address nothing happens, they just do the same thing. They flat out refuse to accept any form of ID to allow my daughters to close their CTF. We’ve sent driving licences and passports and they simply say they aren’t acceptable forms of ID despite the fact these are the forms of ID they request we are note going to the FSA.

They clearly don’t want to allow people to withdraw their money so they can keep charging management fees.