Siemens and Royal Bank of Scotland
Amount won: £50,000
Employer/Fund: Siemens and Royal Bank of Scotland
FA Firm: Douglas Baillie Ltd
Introduction:
Our client was referred to us by a work colleague to investigate a claim for a mis-sold pension.
She had transferred her Siemens and Royal Bank of Scotland company pensions into a personal pension with Axa Wealth (now Phoenix), this was then transferred to Royal London 4 years later.
The company pensions were transferred by Douglas Baillie Ltd.
The Background:
Our client was only 51 years old at the time and had no intention of retiring until her state retirement date. She had previously worked for Siemens and Royal Bank of Scotland and had defined benefit pensions with both companies. Siemens value £21196.56 and Royal Bank of Scotland value £11088.21.
She was working for a business that provided debt advice and her colleague, the owner of the company, advised they had a contact with a pension advisory firm that would ensure her funds were invested somewhere else in order to provide a better return. Our client signed some paperwork, prepared by her colleague, but at no time did she ever speak to a financial advisor. Our client had very limited experience of financial services and had no reason to suspect she was being misled.
Her pensions were then transferred by Douglas Baillie Ltd, a company our client had never heard of before we investigated this for her.
The Consequences:
- Our client was only 51 at the time and had no need to transfer her pensions. The earliest she could access this would be 4 years on at age 55 and she therefore lost 4 years growth on her company pensions.
- She gave up the valuable benefits and guarantees that both her defined benefit company pensions provided.
- Her pension was no longer inflation proof and was now subject to the volatility of the market.
- She now faces a lifetime of fund and advisor charges with the real risk that her pension fund could run out well in advance of her death.
- If our client had not been advised to transfer her company pensions to Axa Wealth then the subsequent transfer to Royal London would not have taken place 4 years later, costing her a further 4% in adviser fees.
Our client paid the following fees:
- Adviser fees of circa £1614 for the initial transfer of the company pensions to Axa Wealth in 2013
- Ongoing adviser fees of 0.5%
- Further adviser fee of circa £1735 for the transfer to Royal London in 2017
Our client never spoke to anyone from Douglas Baillie Ltd and never received a suitability report covering the recommendation to transfer her company pensions.
Douglas Baillie Ltd are now in liquidation.
The Settlement:
We were able to determine that our client had a claim once we obtained her files from her previous and existing pension providers. We then submitted a detailed claim along with considerable evidence to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), as Douglas Baillie are now in liquidation.
The FSCS calculated our client’s losses at £50204.62 which is remarkably more than the total amount transferred of £32284.77.
Our client received the maximum compensation of £50,000, which is the FSCS limit for a firm that were declared in default before 1st April 2019.
This was paid directly to her bank account and she has since carried out major home improvements by installing a new boiler, central heating, double glazing and had the whole house re-wired. All of which in turn has saved her significant money on her energy bills. She has also enjoyed a cruise.
Have you or someone you know transferred their final salary pension?
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