Mis-selling indicators
- Cold Called?
- Were you pressured into investing your pension into something you didn’t want or need?
- Unsuitable Scheme
- Excessive Fees?
- High Risk ?
- Troubled Investment?
- Transferred Abroad?
Types of Pension
There are a range of different non-standard pension investments that have been offered over recent years in the UK. Many of these have ended up being mis-sold.
- Storage Pods
- Car Parks
- Overseas Property
- Green Energy
- Forestry
1. Self-invested Personal Pensions (SIPP)
SIPPs themselves are not a problem. In fact, they can be a great option, giving you more control over what happens to your pension pot. The problem is the subsequent purchase of high-risk and under-performing investments which have higher annual charges and can be impossible to sell on. SIPP operators have been heavily criticised for their lack of due diligence and failing to conduct sufficient background checks on product providers. This has led to many complaints, against both the financial advisors and the SIPP operators – and if you’ve been misled in this way, you could be eligible to make a mis-sold pension claim.
2. Final Salary Transfers
A final salary transfer is when your employer looks at your final salary and, bases your last known pay, into a new pension product. These pensions are often referred to as “gold-plated” due to the generous levels of security and, regular income they provide in retirement. This kind of transfer is very rarely a good idea. By transferring a final salary pension, you lose any guaranteed benefits as well as risking losing the money in your pension pot. If you’ve been wrongly advised to do this, you may be entitled to mis-sold pension compensation.
3. Small Self-adminstered Scheme (SSAS)
Generally, this type of pension scheme is set up by non-regulated entities (e.g. sales agents, alternative product providers) with the aim to hold high-risk and illiquid investments.
Transfers to a SSAS are often made with the intention to avoid stringent safeguarding regulations. However, if you can provide proof that a regulated financial advisor incorrectly advised you to move to an SSAS, you may be eligible to make a mis-sold pension claim.
4. Occupational Pension Scheme (OPS)
An occupational pension scheme is an account created by your employer to help you save for your retirement. More often than not, they fall into three categories – defined benefit schemes, defined contribution schemes, and cash balance plans – and are very well-regulated. But this is not always the case and, if your OPS was set up by an unregulated entity, you could be entitled to claim.
An increasing number of financial advisors are being prosecuted and/or fined following the rise in reports of mis-sold pensions and investments. These cases of bad pension advice can take various forms, but for those in the UK who suffered such issues, there may be the opportunity to claim compensation for bad pension advice
Is your advisor in default? Check now at the following link:
https://www.fscs.org.uk/failed-firms/
The following regulated firms have been identified as firms that made SIPP transfers:
- 1 Stop Financial Services
- Phoenix Financial Solutions
- The Pensions Office
- Moneywise Financial Advisors
- MAC Financial Advice LLP also trading as
- KMA Wealth
- Demontfort Professional Wealth
- Management LLP
- Active Investment Services Limited
- Douglas Baillie Limited
- Bankhouse Investment Management Limited
If you were introduced to the SIPP by a third party introducer that was not authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, you may still be able to recover your losses. The following are examples of third party introducers:
- Jackson Francis
- CLP Brokers
- TPS Land
- PFR Services
Some examples of pension providers that are now in administration:
- Berkeley Burke
- Liberty Sipp
- Lifetime Sipp
- Greyfriars