The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have been conducting various reviews into Pension mis-selling over recent years. Whether that relates to SIPPS or Final Salary transfers. Working in conjunction with the Banks and Financial providers to see if mis-sold products can be addressed. The investigations have unearthed some appalling sales techniques where we would advise anyone with a Pension to get it checked out.
It is important to remember that, regardless of the time of sale you can check to see if your pension arrangements are right for you. Don’t worry about whether you were missold just make sure you check as so much can go wrong with Pensions and the last thing you want to happen is find out there is something amiss when you least want to. That is when you need the pension on retirement.
The vast majority of people should check for several reasons but don’t: –
- Them not knowing whether the Pension was mis-sold:
- Not having any paperwork or account details regarding the Pension;
- Believing the claim would be out of date;
- Concerns that they would lose money if they made a complaint and it was not as successful.
None of these factors have any relevance whatsoever, as we work with our clients and have done so for a number of years. We specialise in complaints which are old, with our oldest successful claim and refund being from 1987. We work for clients who are not aware or cannot remember how the Pension was sold, for those clients who do not have any paperwork or information in relation to their Pension other than details of a financial provider.
We work purely on a “No Win No Fee” basis and this therefore protects our clients just in case we are unable to obtain a refund, for whatever reason.
As a Firm, we do not believe in directly contacting our clients, as any form of complaint or claim against a Bank is personal and related to a person’s finances. We believe that they should make the approach to us, to work on their behalf, should they wish to do so.
The Pension scandals being seen is costing financial institutions 100’s of millions of pounds and this is likely to rise to several billion. It is likely that this figure will escalate to well over several billion by the time more cases of mis-selling especially around final salary transfers are unearthed. However, interestingly (or disturbingly) depending upon how you wish to view it, the level of potential refunds that could take place run into even greater sums, bearing in mind the number of pension policies that were taken, certainly from the from the late 1980s through to present day and the pension freedoms of 2015, which have not been addressed, due to the various reasons detailed above.
Financial institutions have until now largely got away with Pension mis-sales (not so much lightly, as of course they are paying out a huge amount of money) but they have benefited enormously financially from the mis-selling of any Pension product and whilst the Pension scandals will dent their pride and finances, it certainly will not destroyed them!