Scott & Fyfe
Amount won: £26,462.13
Employer/Fund: Scott & Fyfe
FA Firm: Capital & Income Solutions
Introduction:
Our client was an existing customer and called us to investigate a claim for a mis-sold pension.
In 2011 he was advised to transfer his Scott & Fyfe company pension along with a personal pension into a Stakeholder pension with Scottish Widows. This was then transferred to Royal London in 2015 and then switched to another Royal London fund in 2018. The advice on all three occasions was given by a local Mortgage Adviser and Capital & Income Solutions.
The Background:
Our client was cold called by the Mortgage Adviser offering advice on mortgages and life insurance. When they weren’t able to offer any assistance with the mortgage the Mortgage Adviser told our client they were a pension expert and asked if he had any old pensions.
Our client had previously worked for Scott & Fyfe for almost 19 years and had a deferred defined company pension worth £33,906. He also had a personal pension with Sun Life worth £12,771.
The Mortgage Adviser said that these pensions were not performing and he would be better moving both pensions to a Stakeholder pension with Scottish Widows.
Our client believed the Mortgage Adviser was acting in his best interests and was qualified and authorised to give the pension transfer advice that they did. Our client was financially inexperienced and relied entirely on this advice.
The Consequences:
- Our client was only 48 years old at the time and had no thoughts of retiring until he was at least age 67. If he did decide to access the pension early he would not be able to do this until he was 55 and therefore lost a minimum of 7 years growth on his company pension.
- He was not made aware of the benefits and guarantees he was giving up by transferring his company pension nor the Guaranteed Annuity Rates available on his Sun Life pension.
- His pension was no longer inflation proof and was now subject to the volatility of the market.
- He paid an initial fee in 2011 and was told this would cover the pension transfer advice and future annual reviews. But he didn’t hear from the Mortgage Adviser again until 2015 when they got back in touch and advised him to move his Scottish Widows pension to Royal London. He was then charged another advice fee, again with the promise this would cover future annual reviews but again these never materialised. He was charged yet another advice fee when he was advised to transfer his Royal London pension into another fund within Royal London.
Our client paid the following fees:
- Adviser fee of circa £2330 for initial transfer in 2011
- Scottish Widows – Annual Management Charge of 1%
- Adviser fee of circa £2495 for 2015 transfer
- Royal London – Management Charge of 0.45% per year
- Adviser fee of £500 to switch to another fund within Royal London
The Mortgage Adviser was not authorised or regulated to give pension transfer advice. They were using a regulated firm called Capital & Income Solutions to sign off the pension transfer but our client never spoke to anyone from that firm.
Capital & Income Solutions are now in liquidation.
The Settlement:
After obtaining our clients files from his previous and existing pension providers we were able to determine that he had a claim. We then submitted a detailed claim to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) with considerable evidence.
The claim was submitted to the FSCS as Capital & Income Solutions, the regulated firm involved, are now in liquidation.
The FSCS calculated our client’s losses at £26,462.13 and this tax-free compensation has been paid directly into our client’s bank account.
Have you or someone you know transferred their final salary pension?
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