pension 'liberation' companies

spartan69

fgdfgdfgsfgs

dunstonh

I also have a frozen Pension fund held with Prudential which has £27k in the 'pot'.

That means it is unlikely to be frozen.

I know there are companies out there with names like sellyourpensionnow.com and cashyourpension.com that promise to 'legally' 'release' funds from pensions whatever your age.

The names may be silly but the fact they still exist after the High Court deemed them illegal is even sillier. Almost as silly as those that still plan to use them despite knowing all this.

As far as the 41% to HMRC goes, my plan would be to buy premium bonds with the £9.5k until such time that HMRC send me my 'bill'....and you never know they might even win for me in the meantime !!??

HMRC can force you to reinstate the pension AND penalise you on top for tax fraud.

If everything i've written is factual, then i would request the name of the 'best' company to deal with this for me..

I have no intention of naming a company acting illegally and outside of the FSA remit.

jamesd

spartan69 wrote: »

I have done some reading on these and I understand that the main potential pitfalls from using one of these companies is that the company could charge at least 15% of the fund for their 'services' and also that HMRC may charge you 41% interest on any payment you receive

The main pitfall is that scammers may take all of your pension money for themselves. When dealing with people who are scheming to break the law it's prudent to assume that they will continue to do so.

The actual cost from HMRC is 55% of the money charged against you plus 15% against the company doing it plus penalty charges. So 70% plus penalties. You'll be told to pay 100% of the money back into the pension pot.

spartan69 wrote: »

£27k fund

So that's £14,850 tax charge to you plus £4,050 to reimburse the pension company plus penalties that you'll owe. Plus whatever a scammer charges for the service. That leaves you with £4,050 before penalties if a scammer charges you 15%. But since you'll be told to pay the money back into the pension pot you'll really be left with less money than you started with.

spartan69 wrote: »

If everything i've written is factual

It isn't. You've greatly under-stated the cost you'll end up paying.

spartan69 wrote: »

Thanks for any advice anyone offers.

Avoid being taken in by scammers. You can't afford the loss.

dunstonh

if it is actually 'illegal' how are these companies able to come up as the top 3 sponsored 'ads' whenever you google anything to do with pensions or taking pensions early ???

Google dont remove companies until someone reports them.

I'm sure that these companies are all UK based aswell so again, I'm unsure how they are able to operate if what they are doing is actually 'illegal'.

Typically, they use unregulated firms as introducer. Like most frauds, the regulators rely on information that is comes after the event and by the time they look into it, the company in question has moved on and restarted under a new name and very often they are based in Spain or Portugal but have UK introducers/agents so you dont realise this.

Name one or two of these companies you have looked at and we can then look at them and tell you the issues.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/consumerinformation/product_news/pensions/pension_schemes.shtml
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/regulate-and-enforce/pension-liberation.aspx
http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/workplace-pension-schemes/pension-liberation-plans
http://www.professionalpensions.com/professional-pensions/news/2155005/left-suicidal-bogus-pension-liberation-deals-exposed
http://international-adviser.net/news/uk/court-rules-pensions-reciprocation-plans-illegal

dunstonh

sell-my-pension.co.uk

Not regulated by the FSA. Site not compliant with FSA regulations if they were a regulated firm and possibly the FSA would be interested as they say they offer advice and that is a regulated activity. They are introducer. Site would be taken down if it was a regulated firm.

Some of the options listed on the iste are just commencement of the pension (i.e. taking the 25% for over 55s).

pensionunlockers.com

Not liberation but just commencement of the pension. Not regulated by the FSA and an introducer. Site is a mish mash of incorrect statements and would be a breach of regulated.

cashpension4u.com

Site contains information that is wrong or made up. It also encourages schemes that were recently deemed illegal by the High Court.

They say on their site "As a company we have over two decades of experience in the Pensions and Finance Industry". Yet they are not FSA regulated.

sellpensionuk.com

Not regulated by the FSA. Appears to be an introducer.

pensionreleased.com

This appears to be a trust busting scheme that HMRC would likely consider unlawful. Massive fees and you are left with the tax bill and penalties. Offshore based.

surrendermypension.co.uk

Awful site. Like most of the others, no FSA compliance messages and mention of FSA regulation. Mentions options recently deemed illegal. Also contains outright lies. e.g. it says "FOR PEOPLE WHO WILL BE SATISFIED WITH A 20% PENSION FUND ADVANCE NOW WITH NO AFFECT ON THEIR FUTURE PENSION BENEFITS"

some of the options on the site are lawful (such as normal pension commencement and seem to be on introducer basis).


One thing that most of these sites share is a lack of name and address. No companies house compliance message. No FSA compliance messages etc. Things like that should be putting you on guard in themselves. The rubbish on them just cements it.

spartan69

Thanks for the advice !! I will have to wait for my turn winning the lottery for my windfall it seems !!

dunstonh

Further to the advice above, i have had another company call me now... Financial Marketing Services (FMS) financialmarketingservices.net and they are offering investment into a SIPP scheme where my pension 'pot' would not reduce but would be invested in overseas projects such as commecial/property projects in the UAE

These tend to be the ones where the worst scams are. They place the investments into schemes that whittle the money away down to nothing. The properties bought have been known to bought at inflated prices from people linked to the scheme.

I would receive a 'commission' for doing this....which i admit sounds attractive

That would be classed as an unauthorised payment by HMRC and subject to a penalty tax and the would ask you to return it to the pension. The attractive commission is actually a deduction from your fund.

Does this sound above board or does it sound suspicious ? what questions should i be asking of this company before i signed anything ?

I dont know anything about this company and my response is generic but if you were ask anyone who knows about the issues which are the worst schemes it would be those that go trust busting to buy overseas properties using offshore trustees/administrators.

jem16

spartan69 wrote: »

As no funds will be taken from my pension, surely hmrc wouldn't be concerned as the pension fund would simply be reinvested???

So nothing comes from your pension fund but you are paid a nice healthy amount simply for reinvesting your pension with them? Where do you think this nice healthy amount comes from?

if it sounds too good to be true....................

jamesd

spartan69 wrote: »

i have had another company call me now...

Congratulations! You now seem to be on what is colloquially called a "sucker list". Scammers pass around lists of people who seem as though they might be willing to respond, making money by selling the list to other scammers. You'll probably get more approaches in the future.

spartan69 wrote: »

my pension 'pot' would not reduce but would be invested in overseas projects such as commecial/property projects in the UAE.

Ah, the joys of property scams.

Let me tell you one way to steal your money.

Take it and reinvest it in a construction project. Pay contractors to do the building work, at above normal rates. Sell the property at a loss because it can't be profitable given the costs. Rinse, repeat until no more of your money remains and it's all gone to the contractors. All done with the money remaining within a pension.

Don't want to use property? Have the pension fund pay a crook to give financial advice. Crook pays the people scamming you a share of the profit. Your pension pot value decreases by the value of the fees, while they fob you off saying it's just normal market movements or normal costs or whatever else you'll accept.

spartan69 wrote: »

I would receive a 'commission' for doing this

You weren't born yesterday were you? Who's giving you the commission money for nothing? Everything you get plus profit for the people selling it to you is coming out of the value of your pension pot somehow.

spartan69 wrote: »

Does this sound above board or does it sound suspicious ? what questions should i be asking of this company before i signed anything ?

"Please remove me from your sucker list. I'm wise to this stuff now and won't be buying anything without checking at MSE in the future."

spartan69 wrote: »

advice, once again, appreciated.

Stop working so hard to give crooks your money. It's traditional to try to make life hard for them, not easy.

dunstonh

I did ask specifically if anything was deducted from my pension fund and I was assured that any money I received was commission and totally seperate from my funds.

Commission comes from your money. Companies that scam you are not going to tell you the truth.

contrarymary1972

It seems I too am one of these gullible people! I have just yesterday contacted this local company (after checking how long they had been registered as a limited company - since 1996) in order to look at doing just this. They told me I could look at getting access to 75% of my fund (being from 20 years ago when I paid in age 16 to 19). I have a current very healthy pension scheme. The company is Hesketh Boyd Finance Ltd. I am still letting them come and then I will hit them with all this. The following night I have a fully authorised IFA calling around, anyway, who I was going to ask if all this seemed above board.

I am now considering transferring into my current scheme instead.