Columbia Threadneedle Investments Reviews 

I was rather anxious about asking to sell all my shares, having read a lot of bad reviews. I needn't have worried. I spoke on the phone to someone who checked a few details and explained clearly what would happen.
Everything went as promised and the money is now safely in my account.

I am extremely content with how the process to resolve my issue was dealt with when I contacted CTI today.

waiting three whole months to liquidate a basic utma account because this prehistoric platform completely blocks online withdrawals is an absolute joke. you are forced to pay out of pocket to snail mail physical documents packed with sensitive social security numbers while their office takes weeks to even open the envelope. standard Market Integrity digital custody frameworks verify guardian transitions and distribute minor trust assets via instant multi factor online verification rails in minutes.

Under no circumstances invest your money with this company. I have been trying to transfer an account to my son and they could not have been less helpful. If there is a problem, instead of contacting me direct, they put everything in the post which takes 10 days to arrive - I have np idea why. They can't be bothered to call to check details, they just reject the paperwork and send it all back. This has been going on for weeks.
They were terrible when I was trying to sort out my mother's affairs - even though I have Power of Attorney because she has dementia and my step father had recently died.
If I could give 0 stars I would. Do not go near this company.

Can't fault the customer service.
Needed help accessing a CTF for my disabled daughter,
They made the process so much easier than expected. Helping me from start to finish

These people are nincompoops. Example: jus now I got a mysterious email from CT. about events in ,my account I called 4 times. Half an hour later after beign grilled on my ID i learned it was the deposit of a mundne check. Stupid easte of time. Evidently this will happen again and again unless I get out their clutches which I wm sure will cost lots of money.

It is almost impossible to work out my CGT liability.
The lack of historic data for me to work on is very poor.
The growth of the assist is good, the management BAD.

Had a great experience. I discovered that my adult daughter's child trust fund had been held here. As she has learning disabilities she was unable to claim the fund herself. I had heard that normally you would need an order from the Court of Protection to access this on her behalf.
I was so surprised to find the company have set up an exceptional circumstances procedure to fast track this. Exceptional customer service and a real breath of fresh air to find a company that make something easy for once. This was so greatly appreciated. Thank you!

These days of "Compliance" and "Money Laundering rules" have made it normal to have to jump through hoops to open an account with a financial organisation or solicitor.
Fortunately, in the case of Columbia Threadneedle I was helped by Susan Harper who guided me through the many obstacles. Susan contacted me frequently by email and phone to assist me. Her service was excellent but the industry needs to make opening and closing accounts more user friendly.

Quality customer care, great communication and Susan Harper dealt with the situation with our disabled daughter's Child Trust Fund with compassion and understanding. She made the whole process so easy and provided open dialague throughout, both over the phone and via correspondance.

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.