What does an IT consultant really do?

We invested some money through an investment consultant of a major bank and lost money because the consultant?

• put it in the wrong investment product, did not disclose all the important information, etc. I got a substantial amount of money from refinancing and when I went to the bank to put this money in a CD or money market, the bank teller/customer service person siad that I should go to their financial consultant where the money will earn more interest than the CD and money market. We (my husband & myself) met with the adviser briefly. We told him that it was borrowed money from refinancing and we had to pay it back with interest and he should be careful in investing it. We want it to be safe. He told us that he has been an investment consultant for a long time, had invested a lot of money for clients, know what he was doing, etc. We believed him so we gave the money to him ($100,000 we got from refinancing our home). He gave us no brochure. He met with us briefly since he was busy and had other appointments. After 15 months, I was surprised when I received my bank statement that all my stocks/shares were redeemed at around $52,000. The loss was around $48.000. I called him (he has not called all the past 15 months) and asked who cashed or redeemed all my shares/stocks. that was when the stocks were really low (after a while the stock market went up) . He said he invested it in stock/shares that it automatically redeems in 15 months no matter what, whether you like it or not, without any notice. We were very upset and depressed why our stocks were cashed as such a bad time, without any notice, without any input from us.. We could have wait until the market was better if we had the choice and not lose that much money. If he only told us where he would invest our money and explain the risk that it will redeem in 15 months no matter how bad the market is, we definitely would not agree to it, but he did not mention that. The money we lost was such a big amount for us to lose, being disabled and both elderlies. I think the reason he put it in 15 mo. investment is that he gets another commission when he invest it again after 15 months. He put the money in a very, very risky investment, giving the client no choice when to cash/redeem the investment. I want to know what recourse I have to recover the money, who I should go to. What organization or person should I go to for help. I can go to a lawyer but it will cost me more money and the bank may not give my lost money back so it will be more financial losses.. How much time do I have to seek justice or bring this matter to court if I have to. Pls. provide some answers. We are very depressed about what happened because this is borrowed money that we loat that we need to repay. We are disabled elderlies (66 & 70 years old). Thank you for your response.

• Answer:

  You're not going to be able to get any of that money back. I'm very sorry. You really can't sue the consultant for making bad or poor choices. There's no guarantee when you invest in stocks. You could try to sue him or the bank but it's just going to cost you more money unless you could prove there was some kind of fraud. It doesn't sound like fraud to me. You should know better than to hand that much money over without first doing some research. Investments, all of them, have risk... some more than others. You need to protect what's left and be thankful that it wasn't all lost.