Request for agency transfer

pthurgood

My wife has recently appointed a financial advisor to help with her pension pots. He has just sent her a letter which he has asked her to sign and send back to him. The letter states the following:
Dear sirs, would you please accept this letter as my authority to transfer with immediate effect, all servicing rights for the above numbered policy(s) to Define Wealth Management reference number ******


Is this normal and will my wife lose any of her money or rights by signing this?

Malthusian

Yes this is normal and no she cannot lose anything. "Servicing rights" simply means the adviser has the right to ask the provider for information about the policy, to send forms and copies of letters to their offices, and suchlike.

Anything more than that would require explicit authorisation from your wife.

HappyHarry

As Malthusian says.

In addition, should there be any old-style commission paid from the pension, then the new adviser will start to receive it instead of any previous (possibly in-house) adviser.

However, no more commission will be paid now than was previously, so there will be no impact on your wife's funds.

dunstonh

Is this normal and will my wife lose any of her money or rights by signing this?

Totally normal. All products retailed via intermediaries sit on an agency for that intermediary. At the moment, the original intermediary still has access to her policy information. This can include being sent copy statements for example.

IFAs typically run back office software that integrates with most providers. The provider will only integrate policy data if it sits on the agency of that adviser.

As long as the adviser is an IFA or whole of market (and not a restricted tied agent) then this is fine.