Four Financial Planning and wealth management firms are included in the table of most complained-against financial services firms published by the Financial Ombudsman Service for the first half of 2023.

Several financial advice companies saw a number of complaints during the half ending 30 June.

St James’s Place saw the highest number of complaints against an advice firm, with 126 complaints. Of these 58 were in relation to investments and 62 were in relation to decumulation life and pensions

James Hay had 43 complaints around decumulation life and pensions.

Quilter saw a total of 35 complaints, with the majority (24) being related to decumulation life and pensions.

Network True Potential saw 34 complaints during the half, with 31 in relation to decumulation life and pensions.

There were 4,189 new decumulation life and pension complaints in the first half, compared to 3,842 in the second half of 2022.

There were 2,593 new complaints about investments, compared to 2,227 in the second half of 2022.

The overall number of complaints rose significantly in the first half of the year.

There were a total of 93,114 complaints made to the ombudsman between 1 January and 30 June, in comparison to the 79,921 complaints received in the last six months of 2022.

The ombudsman said the increase could partially be attributed to a five-year high in building and motor insurance complaints, due to insurers delaying in paying out on claims while at the same time contractor availability impacted the speed of repairs.

There were 24,496 new general insurance/pure protection complaints in H1 2023, compared to 19,346 in H2 2022

Banking and credit complaints also rose substantially with fraud and scam cases making up around half the increase. There were 56,690 new banking and credit complaints in H1 2023, compared to 50,346 in H2 2022

Abby Thomas, CEO and chief ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, said: “Financial complaints have risen again, with cases particularly increasing in the banking and insurance sectors. 

“Given the economic challenges people are facing, it’s more important than ever that they feel protected. Whatever their grievance, consumers should expect fair and reasonable treatment from their provider.”

Overall in the first six months of this year, the Financial Ombudsman Service upheld 37% of complaints in the consumers’ favour, compared to 34% in the second half of 2022.

The half also saw data on funeral planning complaints published for the first time. There were 144 new complaints about funeral planning in the first half of the year.