Risk of signing blank forms

Dear Mr. Tan
A few year ago, while working in another country, I bought an investment savings insurance plan on the recommendation of a representative from a Singapore bank. I learned later about the severe misrepresentations and undisclosed terms and conditions. The terms and conditions of the policy were never supplied to me, despite repeated writing to the bank for almost 15 months.

The representative took signatures from me and my wife on blank forms and assured us that he would send copies of the duly completed on his return to Singapore. But it never happened despite several written reminders to them.

The representative also fabricated the facts in the Financial Need Anlaysis form which included Risk analysis done for me. The said form was never discussed with me nor filled in by me. The representative’s office just emailed me the last page of such form and asked me to sign at the indicated place and return by fax the same. I did what was asked.

The receipt of fax was duly acknowledged by the bank. On the fax cover sheet, I mentioned that I was sending the last page of the form signed in blank as advised by them. It was also mentioned that my risk profile was a conservative investor and the purpose was to get a higher return compared to a time deposit.

Recently, after a lot of chasing, the bank has sent a copy of the form filled in by the representative. To my utter surprise, the information on the forms were all fabricated by the representative and he completely ignored my instructions on the fax cover sheet. He has shown me in the form as a Growth investor who can take higher risks with the money.

Based on such fabrication of a material document, the Bank is denying its liability of any kind for my investment loss.

Lesson: Never sign a blank form. Never trust a sales person who may act unethically.