📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

SIPP pension mis-sold?

2456789

Comments

  • jamesd
    jamesd Posts: 26,103 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 25 October 2013 at 5:14PM
    The ways its been left with 'Good IFA' is that he is expecting to be copied in on an email from me to the FOS, negating him from blame and placing it firmly at the door of Bad IFA
    Definitely don't do that. Simply stating the facts and who did which part of the business will deal with the matter. While the bad IFA did the deed, the business was carried out through the "good" one and that's what the FOS needs to know.
    Asking me to chase the other IFA via the courts is a bit rich also - I guess my response should be, YOU chase him through the courts...
    Correct.
    He mentioned that should this complaint be escalted to the FOS, it would cost him £500.
    That isn't what's worrying. He appears to be on the hook for the whole of your loss plus statutory interest, not just the FOS fee. It's not the £500 that would hurt his business but the whole amount transferred.
    The FOS pointed out that this would suggest he has reached their £free complaint investigation limit, and that now he must be being charged for any new complaints.
    Or that he is misleading you about what really worries him - the tens of thousands, not the FOS fee.

    The FOS will know whether he has today reached the free limit. If he hasn't that would be evidence of him misleading you. He appears to be hoping that you don't realise what he's really on the hook for.
    I am currently awaiting the co,mission paid breakdown to see who actually officially benfitted; I'm sure commission would have been passed on to Bad IFA, albeit not officially...
    That would be useful further evidence about the IFA who is claiming to the good guy. The more you get before it gets to the FOS, the easier it will be for the FOS to deal with it, since they will have less discovery work to do themselves.
  • mania112
    mania112 Posts: 1,981 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 26 October 2013 at 2:05AM
    Seems like both (X) and (Y) are at fault here and structured/compliant advice is out the window.

    (X) has told you to 'pay up or else' and has perhaps been a bit pushy, to the extend where you have felt obliged to transfer your pension just so (X) can receive some fees (owed on something else).

    (X) has then written a report, flashed it in front of (Y)'s face and (Y) has signed it.

    (Y) has then completed the transfer.

    In essence, as Dustonh says, signing off isn't uncommon. But perhaps the best way to handle this (and is the structure i'm familiar with) is for (X) to fact find you ONLY and pass everything over to (Y) for them to write the report and provide unbiased advice.

    What is the advice? Why have you been recommended a transfer?

    (Y) is to blame for wrong advice (if there was any)

    (X) is to blame for unethical practice.

    Both are punishable, assuming they're both regulated individuals.

    EDIT: Are you certain the transferred pension is now invested in an unregulated fund? It's quite rare to see that, seeing as the costs of giving advice on those types of investments is high (and you shouldn't be doing it anyway), most firms don't bother with it.
  • Hi mania112 - thanks for the reply
    mania112 wrote: »
    What is the advice? Why have you been recommended a transfer?

    I was advised to move the pension solely to pay off the advisor money I owed him for a sererate issue. He flowered up with, "this will give much greater returns than your current fund, plus it's green and ethical!"

    Transferring my pension had never ever crossed my mind until he suggested it as a way to pay him off.

    This seems slightly irrelevent however, due to the fact his name is not the one showing as the advisor :(.
    mania112 wrote: »
    Are you certain the transferred pension is now invested in an unregulated fund? It's quite rare to see that, seeing as the costs of giving advice on those types of investments is high (and you shouldn't be doing it anyway), most firms don't bother with it.

    100% certain - the fund is SustainableAgroEnergy - I've read things like this, since:

    "Unregulated collective investment schemes (Ucis) such as SAE are legal but are only meant to be offered to sophisticated investors who are aware of their high risk..."

    Quite clearly wasn't the case.
  • Linton
    Linton Posts: 18,198 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Hung up my suit!
    .......
    100% certain - the fund is SustainableAgroEnergy - I've read things like this, since:

    "Unregulated collective investment schemes (Ucis) such as SAE are legal but are only meant to be offered to sophisticated investors who are aware of their high risk..."

    Quite clearly wasn't the case.

    Oops - have you seen this?
  • gadgetmind
    gadgetmind Posts: 11,130 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I don't think either IFA involved or the FSA/FCA have exactly covered themselves in glory here. This is exactly the kind of deeply dodgy investment that private investors should be protected from by IFAs rather than steered into.
    I am not a financial adviser and neither do I play one on television. I might occasionally give bad advice but at least it's free.

    Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.
  • Sounds like a clear missale. There is no "good" IFA here. There is a bogus IFA who is a crook. There is a real IFA who is an idiot because he signed off something without first checking it was suitable.

    The idiot is also almost certainly in breach of the rules of his network by attempting to influence the outcome of that complaint.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 119,814 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    gadgetmind wrote: »
    I don't think either IFA involved or the FSA/FCA have exactly covered themselves in glory here. This is exactly the kind of deeply dodgy investment that private investors should be protected from by IFAs rather than steered into.

    Thankfully most people are. Most of these things are done by non-regulated individuals. However, there is always a few bad apples that spoil it.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • Linton wrote: »
    Oops - have you seen this?

    Hi Linton

    Certainly have - I found out about this last year :mad:
  • Sounds like a clear missale. There is no "good" IFA here. There is a bogus IFA who is a crook. There is a real IFA who is an idiot because he signed off something without first checking it was suitable.

    The idiot is also almost certainly in breach of the rules of his network by attempting to influence the outcome of that complaint.

    I think that pretty much sums the pair up perfectly.
  • mania112
    mania112 Posts: 1,981 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I can only assume the 'adviser' chose this fund because that gave him a kick-back too.

    What a disaster.

    Thankfully, although it seems like every other comment is a complaint on here, this level of incompetence is hard to find.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351.3K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.7K Spending & Discounts
  • 244.2K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599.4K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.1K Life & Family
  • 257.7K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.