Tayside Pension Fund
Amount won: £22,562.81
Employer/Fund: Tayside Pension Fund
FA Firm: Capital & Income Solutions
Introduction:
Our client was referred to us by a work colleague to investigate a claim for a mis-sold pension.
She was advised to transfer her Tayside Pension Fund pension into a personal pension with Royal London by Mike Connelly of The Mortgage Finance Store and Capital & Income Solutions.
The Background:
Our client was age 65 at the time and had worked for the local council for 8 years and had no intention of retiring until age 70. She had a defined benefit company pension with a value of £43,823.89.
She had been referred to Mike Connelly by work colleagues to whom he had previously given pension transfer advice.
Our client was actually looking for advice on her mortgage and from the very first meeting Mike Connelly presented leaving the Tayside Pension Fund pension as the only financial solution. Our client was financially inexperienced and relied on his advice, she was led to believe he was fully qualified and authorised to give this advice.
The Consequences:
- Our client was not advised of the benefits and guarantees she was giving up.
- Her pension is no longer inflation proof and is now subject to the volatility of the market.
- Her pension could run out and she will have to pay management charges until this time or until the day she dies.
- She paid an initial fee of 5% and was told this would cover ongoing advice but this never happened.
- She has since re-joined the Tayside Pension Fund money purchase scheme, as she still works for the council, but this is a much inferior scheme compared to the defined benefit scheme.
Our client paid the following fees:
- Adviser fees of circa £2190 to transfer the pension
- Annual management charge 0.5%
Mike Connelly was not authorised or regulated to give pension transfer advice. He used 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 we obtained our clients files from her previous and existing pension providers we were able to determine that she had a claim. We then submitted a detailed claim with considerable evidence to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), as Capital & Income Solutions are now in liquidation.
The FSCS initially rejected the claim but we then appealed this and it was upheld. They calculated our client’s losses at £22562.81 and this tax-free compensation was paid directly into our clients bank account.
Have you or someone you know transferred their final salary pension?
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