Capital & Income Solutions | Successful win of £85,000

Amount won: £85,000

Employer/Fund:Large Retailer Scheme

FA Firm: Capital & Income Solutions

Introduction:

Our client contacted us after seeing one of our articles in the local newspaper to investigate a claim for a mis-sold pension.

He was advised by Mike Connelly of The Mortgage Finance Store and Capital & Income Solutions to transfer his company pension from a large retailer, along with another personal pension, into a personal pension with Aviva.

The Background:

Our client had been referred to Mike Connelly of The Mortgage Finance Store by a family friend as he was looking for mortgage advice. During their discussions Mike Connelly advised he was a Pension Specialist and asked our client if he had any pensions.

Our client had previously worked for a large retailer for 17 years and had a deferred defined benefit company pension worth circa £137250. He also had a personal pension with Prudential worth circa £41620.

Mike Connelly advised that by combining both pensions he would achieve better returns, have more flexibility when finally drawing his pension and would create a pot of money to leave to his son.

Our client had no knowledge of pensions or investments and trusted that Mike Connelly was acting in his best interests as well as being a suitably qualified and authorised pension adviser.

The Consequences:

• Our client was not advised of the valuable benefits and guarantees he was giving up by transferring his company pension.
• He was only 43 years old at the time and had no reason to transfer his pensions. He would not be able to access the pension until he was 55 and therefore lost almost 12 years growth on his company pension.
• His pension was no longer inflation proof and was now subject to the volatility of the market.
• His pension could run out and he would have to pay fund fees until this time or until the day he died.

Our client paid the following fees:

• Adviser fees of circa £6000 to transfer the pensions.
• Aviva – ongoing fund fees of 0.4% per annum

Mike Connelly was not authorised or regulated to give pension transfer advice. He was 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:

We obtained the files from our clients previous and existing providers and were able to ascertain that he had a claim. We then submitted this to The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) with extensive evidence.

The claim was submitted to the FSCS as Capital & Income Solutions, the regulated firm, are now in liquidation.

The FSCS calculated our clients losses at an astonishing £448,739.50.

Our client received the maximum compensation of £85,000 from the FSCS for the pension transfer advice he received. However, this only covered circa 19% of his total losses which in effect means that our client faces a less comfortable and secure retirement than he would have done. It also means he will have to work on to an older age to recoup these losses if he still wants to receive the level of benefits that he gave up when his pension was transferred.

Have you or someone you know transferred their final salary pension?

So even if you think you were given sound advice to transfer your workplace pension, how do you know? That’s why we make it simple. Call our team on 01382 200474 or complete our on-line enquiry form and we’ll be in touch a soon as possible AND remember, that between Beat the Banks and our trusted partners, do all the hard work on your behalf, PLUS claiming has absolutely no effect on your current pension arrangements.