Westpac financial advice customer Jacqueline McDowall tells the royal commission of her heartbreak after selling her home on the bank's advice to pursue a bed and breakfast retirement plan that turned out to be impossible.
Westpac executive Michael Wright, who heads the bank's BT Finance division, admitted that the McDowalls appear to have received bad advice.
The bank also charged ongoing annual review fees of $3,000, with no record of these fees in the advice given to the McDowalls.
Senior counsel Rowena Orr pushed Mr Wright to make sense of the ongoing advice fees, which would have continued after the McDowalls had purchased their bed and breakfast, had their plan been viable and proceeded.”
