Pension compensation - SERPS

tcem

Advice needed - I've been contacted by a company who have advised me that I could claim compensation as I contracted out of SERPS in 1997 (and I answered no to 1 or more of their questions!) They are not one of the no win no fee firms and require a fee of £450 plus VAT and then take 15% of the compensation you receive. I know that if you want to claim compensation for mis-sold endowments you can sometimes deal direct with the insurance company. Is there any way I could do the same for this and therefore avoid having to pay a third party costs etc? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

homersimpson_3

what is name of co?

tcem

the company that contacted me are called Morgan Green

dunstonh

Nothing wrong with contracting out of S2P under the right circumstances. There are significant advantages to many people contracting out just as there is to others contracting in.

With contracting out seen as being a good thing for most people up until around 2000 when Labour started reducing the rebates, it would be hard for you to get a mis-sale. Even the FSA have said that a mis-sale issue is unlikely with contracting out after they did look into it and they have said retrospective rules will not be applied to contracting out.

The issue is one of legislative risk versus investment risk and the only way of knowing which is absolutely going to be the best option is when you get to retirement. Recent clarification on contracting out has led me to contract more people out in the last year as well as contract more people back in again. That sort of clarification and guidance hasn't been present in recent years.

This is probably why this firm are not doing it on a no win, no fee basis as the chances of winning are going to be low.

Also, with pensions, any redress payable would be paid into the pension and not to your pocket so lets assume the company did pay redress, you would have to pay 15% of that out of your own pocket.

Perhaps a more important question here is what is it about contracting out that you think was a mis-sale?

EdInvestor

As a general rule nobody should ever pay cash upfront to any company who claims it can help them win misselling compensation.