Pension transfer - claim for loss of "gains"

Moby_Tide

I appreciate this is a one way claim as it could have easily gone the other way however...

Requested transfer of previous employer DC scheme to current employer scheme.
Previous scheme advised 14th June they Had sent funds to new scheme
New scheme claimed non-receipt when I checked with them around July 1st after nothing appeared in my account
They since admitted the funds got lost temporarily in their system.
They have now invested them using unit prices of 11/07
The transaction history shows my funds were received on 20/6
In between 20/06 and 11/07 the funds I invest in have seen an average of 10% increase. Allowing for the purchases to have taken a few days after 20/6 in normal circumstances from unit prices I estimate I'm between £1.7-2.3k worse off based on them investing on 11/07

Do I have any grounds for recourse or complaint? The new scheme is an employer scheme so I can approach trustees, likewise I appreciate I could have lost money if they had invested early and lost money, but I'd initiated this transfer months back, it just took an age to complete and then they have lost the money for upwards of 2 weeks which seems to indicate it was their fault given the transaction dates showing on my account

AnotherJoe

I would say you do have grounds for complaint. I would itemise your claim, putting in a reasonable date, let's say prices on 22nd, and see what they say.

Mistermeaner

A similar thing happened to me with transfer into Zurich. They did pay me the lost gains with minimal fuss.

Personally I'd use the dates that give you highest amount, let them propose an alternative

dunstonh

Do I have any grounds for recourse or complaint?

Probably not. The FCA generally consider 30 days as acceptable. Yours was within that timescale.

That said, the big companies tend to be throwing money at complaints. So, it may well be worth asking the question and see what happens.

If your pension had the funds selected as part of the application process, then you have a fairly good audit trail for them to work out what you would have gained. However, if it was set to be paid into the cash account, then you are unlikely to get anywhere.

Moby_Tide

dunstonh wrote: »

Probably not. The FCA generally consider 30 days as acceptable. Yours was within that timescale.

That said, the big companies tend to be throwing money at complaints. So, it may well be worth asking the question and see what happens.

If your pension had the funds selected as part of the application process, then you have a fairly good audit trail for them to work out what you would have gained. However, if it was set to be paid into the cash account, then you are unlikely to get anywhere.

The transfer is automatically invested as per my monthly employee contributions by default so there was never any doubt where it should go. There is no cash account in theory apart from the cash in transit. As they admitted on the phone they only found the funds last week and then invested them within 2 days I don't see how if they had received the funds on 20/6 they would normally have been invested immediately the same as my employee contributions are each month.

The Trustee I spoke to said he believed they had c.4 day SLA agreed as its a very big fund and everyone's contributions/investments are managed through a portal at work so it generally is very efficient. I just think in this case I've been disadvantaged through a failed process on their side.

I shall see what they say however

dunstonh

Most life companies will back date the unit price to the day they receive the funds automatically. This is because the insurers are usually behind on their workload and this allows them to do the work later but give you the price at the date the funds were cleared to them.

Is this a maintream insurer or one the smaller non-mainstream auto enrolment providers or an occupational pension with a separate administrator?

If its not a life company, then the pension administrator probably doesnt use the automated transfer system (OPTIONS). The old way is a bit manual and still usually involves a cheque being sent (although a small number use bank transfer) and information posted by Royal Mail. This then requires the receiving scheme to wait until the bank statement shows the entry as cleared and match the payment to the paperwork. The options system tends to take a matter of days for the lot. The manual method has been known to take 3-6 months.

Moby_Tide

dunstonh wrote: »

Most life companies will back date the unit price to the day they receive the funds automatically. This is because the insurers are usually behind on their workload and this allows them to do the work later but give you the price at the date the funds were cleared to them.

Is this a maintream insurer or one the smaller non-mainstream auto enrolment providers or an occupational pension with a separate administrator?

If its not a life company, then the pension administrator probably doesnt use the automated transfer system (OPTIONS). The old way is a bit manual and still usually involves a cheque being sent (although a small number use bank transfer) and information posted by Royal Mail. This then requires the receiving scheme to wait until the bank statement shows the entry as cleared and match the payment to the paperwork. The options system tends to take a matter of days for the lot. The manual method has been known to take 3-6 months.

Towers Watson(with added Willis) are the administrators. The transfer in came from L&G, it was definitely a bank transfer as that was in the L&G letter and also why it went missing I think as it wasn't a cheque. The Administrator I presume would then be purchasing the funds on my behalf which is when the money would transfer to the actual Funds presumably, hence although I appreciate the money arrived on the 20th I know that it is normally invested within days

i.e.

My recent transactions Effective Date : 20/06/2016 Single contribution Contribution Value
Fund
Unit
Type in GBP £ Fund Currency Units Price Date Value Transfer-in xx,xxx.xx Baillie Gifford Global Alpha Pension Fund GBP £ x,xxx.xx 11/07/2016 x,xxx.xx


Showing they had an effective date on 20/6 but unit price of 11/07 whereas my monthly employer contribution showed this month for example effective 26/06 invested 28/06

Effective Date : 26/06/2016 Monthly contribution Contribution Value
Fund
Unit
Type in GBP £ Fund Currency Units Price Date Value Employer core contributions xxx.xx Baillie Gifford Global Alpha Pension Fund GBP £ xx.xxx 28/06/2016 xxx.xx

AnotherJoe

Moby_Tide wrote: »

Towers Watson(with added Willis) are the administrators.

Oh dear TW used to look after my old pension fund. Utterly useless.