Public Mediation

My Claim vs. Citibank (Citigroup Headquarters)

M. W. vs. Citibank (Citigroup Headquarters)
388 Greenwich Street, New York, New York, 10013-2362, United States
Amount Involved: Other terms
Complaint(s): Bad business practices | Other
    • Claimant Seeks: View.
    • Claim #: 3939748
    • Amount Involved: N/A
    • Filed On: Apr 13, 2016
    • Posted On: May 02, 2016
    • Complaint(s):
      • Bad business practices
      • Other
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Statement of Claim
Complaints Involved (2) - View
Claimant says:
"Dear Sir or Madam,
This is a letter of complaint about the wrong management of my retirement account by Citibank, which caused a loss of $5778.02 (17.5%) in a period of 13 months.
I was applying for a mortgage from Citibank in December of 2014, and they suggested I rollover my retirement account from another company, in order to have lower rate. I transferred $33,105.12 to Citibank; my wife also transferred her retirement to the Citibank. The financial advisor, Ms. Xiaomei Wang, discussed the investment plan with both of us. During the whole process, Ms. Wang spent all of the time introducing the “Perspective Family of Variable Annuities” to us; we learned that it was a safe and low risk investment, so we agreed to buy it. But we did not know that she bought other mutual funds for us, I had no idea until I received a letter of “Called bond or Redemption notice” 2 weeks ago, which informed me that I had only $27,327.10 left in the account in cash. I was shocked and had no idea of what had happened. I called the bank and they did not know what happened and used “the investment has risk” as an excuse for my loss. I understand that there is no guarantee for any investment, but it was very clear that Ms. Wang purposefully introduced one product to us, but bought another high risk product for us, and for this reason I lost 17.5% of my retirement money in a period of 13 months.
I checked the contract we signed with Citibank, and in page 16, we clearly indicated that the “Investment Objective” was “Growth”. When I called Ms. Wang, she confirmed it, but the fund she bought for us was sold after 13 months. She never mentioned it to us before but afterwards told us it had been scheduled to be sold at this time, but this investment was ultimately not an investment for “Growth”.
In the “Risk Tolerance” part of contract, we clearly indicated it as “Moderate”. But the loss of 17.5% of an investment in a period of 13 months is definitely not “Moderate”.
This is a pay service and the bank has charged very high service fee, they supposedly offered professional management, but the service we received has not followed the investment plan, and the financial advisor purposefully misled us; she introduced one product to us but bought something else. I do not know the reason as to why she did it. I was surprised that she even gave us the book and CD of the variable annuities for us to read at home, after we signed the agreement. However, she never mentioned or gave us any material about the funds she bought for us. In the monthly statement from Citibank, nothing mentioned the fund’s name or when it was to be sold. I strongly believe the wrong management of my account by the Citibank caused my loss, and they should pay $5778.02 back to my retirement account.
The bank location is: Citibank, N. A., 1195 E. Ogden Ave. Naperville, IL 60563, tel: 630-357-3431; 800-846-5200

min wang
1005 East 61st Street
Chicago, Illinois, 60637"
...
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Exhibits View
Additional Communication Between Claimant and Citibank (Citigroup Headquarters) Hide
  • May 03, 2016, Claiming party added:

  • My wife, Dr. Xiaohong Yu’s retirement account at Citibank started from $12686.47, and opened on 12/15/2014. It was sold by them on 4/13/16, and went down to $11699.32. They lost $987.15, about 7.78% of the investment. The situation is similar to mine, but not as worse as my retirement loss. I really want to stress this: they never told us the funds that they bought were scheduled to be sold. We understood that the market always has its ups and downs, but they should have invested the money the way we had discussed with them (as we had never even agreed to the method used). If the Citibank has any evidence that they informed us about the character of these funds, especially that they were scheduled to be sold no matter what, then we will stop asking for a refund and accept the fact that the money has been lost, otherwise, the Citibank has to take the responsibility for these losses.

  • May 03, 2016, Claiming party added:

  • The CPMW’s response is not acceptable and all of they gave the exact same statements with no consideration of my complaints. I did receive a letter from them after the BBB closed the case, but the Citibank never contacted me or the BBB office during the processing of my complaint. The letter from them was very inappropriate, which is why I needed further help from others. If this does not work, I will have to ask for help from the legal system. The problem is that I have to go to New York in order to file the case and they know this would be a problem for anyone so it is to their advantage.

    This is a copy of the email letter I sent to them after I received their letter last month, but they never replied to me. I am happy that they at least responded to my claim from a different source (PeopleClaim), but the response is just as bad as the letter I received from them.

    “ Dear Ms. Altman,

    I have received your letter, thank you for replying. However, I am shocked because the bulk of your argument, the important information in your letter, is simply not true. The fact is that your letter was written without any information about the situation from me. The only information listed was that of what one of your company’s employees told you. If the situation was really anything like you said in your letter, I would have had no need to get the help from the BBB office. As a Medical physician with my own company, with several investments in different companies, I understand the risk of investment. But the loss of this investment is 100% due to wrong management from your company.

    Why did you not reply to the BBB office? Instead, you sent a letter to me after the expected response date, and never asked about my complaints surrounding the situation. Some falsities include: 1. Your bank never told us the fund had a thirteen month term. 2. I had never decided against the Jackson National variable annuity, and I never "felt the charge were too high." I had no knowledge of the charge and had never even heard of it. These are two clear fabrications in your letter, with many more I have not mentioned. I did not even care about how high or low the charge was. You can disagree with my complaints, but your company’s work cannot be based on false information.

    Citibank is a big company, and my family has bank accounts, mortgages, and retirement investments with your company. I hope for a better explanation for the loss rather than an untrue explanation that the account was handled with the accepted or correct procedures, because I believe it was not.

    Please find the facts and avoid similar mistakes in the future, I will be more than happy to assist you in doing so.

    Thanks,

    Min Wang MD “

  • Jun 09, 2016, () added:

  • Citi Personal Wealth Management ("CPWM") conducted an investigation into Mr. Wang's claims and provided him with a detailed response to his complaint. As there has not been any new information raised, CPWM stands by its previous response and does not believe that remedial action is warranted in this matter.

  • Jul 04, 2016, Claiming party added:

  • I received another letter from Kelli Altman, she wrote 3 similar letters to me so far, she never contacted me and repeated her conclusions of closing the case all the time. I attach this letter here, please read it, all the honest people, please read this letter, see how the Citibank treated my claim, and how they announce: "the CFPB does not have jurisdiction over CPWM." If I worked in Citibank, I would definitely think about to have a person to invest it, not just replied to me without investigation.

What Claimant Wants Hide
1. Credit: loss of money Apr 28, 2016 $0.00
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Respondent's Counteroffer Hide
The claimant's settlement terms were rejected with the following explanation:
  • I disagree with the explanation / grounds provided

    "Citi Personal Wealth Management ("CPWM") previously investigated Mr. Wang’s complaint responded to him directly. CPWM feels that Mr. Wang’s account was handled within the parameters of accepted procedures and we do not believe there was any wrongdoing on the part of CPWM or his financial advisor. Financial advisors provide investment recommendations based upon personal and financial information clients provide, as well as publicly available information, and cannot be held responsible for unforeseen events such as market volatility. While we regret that Mr. Wang’s investments did not perform as expected, CPWM cannot be held responsible for events beyond its control, such as volatility experienced by the markets."

This claim will remain posted until resolved.

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  • Comment: by Mike Turner — The Law Is My Passion.
    • On: 06-16-2016
    View more

  • To understand whether a 17.5% loss is moderate, you'd need to compare with the market in general. If the average loss in the market was 10%, 17.5 might be moderate.

    A fund scheduled to close out in 13 mo is not "growth."

    I'd want to know what your ages are, when you'd conceivably need the money, and exactly what all the investments are in order to comment properly.

  • 1
  • Contributed Solution: by J Petaluma On 06-16-2016
    View more
    Citibank should review the complaint - Citibank's response misses the point? More...
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