Thanks for the reply Mossy. The reason we feel misled is that as far as we understood things only half of this investment (the distribution fund) was stocks and shares. The rest of the money was supposed to be safe and generating a steady income. Had we realised that the whole thing was stocks and shares related there is no way we would have gone ahead with the investment. As for looking at the companies involved and deciding what ones will go bankrupt, I wouldn't have a clue where to start. Neither myself or my Mother are financial experts, thats why we sought the help of a financial advisor in the first place. Chris

About three years ago my father died. My mother ended up inheriting just over £100k. As we were unsure of the best way to use this money we went to see a financial advisor at the derbyshire building society. We were advised to set up an investment with axa. Part of the investment being a distribution fund. The rest being in other smaller funds. Having been shown lots of very impressive figures we decided, with some trepidation, to go ahead with it. The goal being to try to make an income for my mother to live on, as this is the only money she has. We were made aware that there was some risk associated with the distribution fund and that shares fluctuate in value. The other parts of the investment were pitched to us as being very safe and reliable. Our 'attitude to risk' was assessed and it was said to be medium, but that we would be 'uncomfortable' to see any significant loss of money. After the first year we started to become worried as the investment had made no money. Another visit to the adviser and he seemed unconcerned and suggested moving some of the funds to other ones. We duly did this, at a cost of over £1000. Now, another year on the investment is woth less than £90k. In fact it has plummeted £4k in the last few days. Very dissapointingly it seems the 'safe' part of the investment is losing just as much money as the 'risky'. My question is this: What on Earth do we do? There are penalties of 8% for taking the money out, this goes down to 5 in december. Frankly we are panicking. I really cant see how this is ever going to make any money at all. Do we take the money out now or in december or try to stick with it? I can't help feeling rather misled by all this. Hope someone can help!