Mis-sold pension compensation

JIMMYJIMMY_2

Hello,
I was unfortunate to be mis-sold a pension in my earlier career. I started in a defined benefit pension and was then "persuaded" to change to a defined contribution pension. I then changed back to my DB pension years later. I am planning to retire at the end of this year and I am considering contacting one of these companies who claim to get some compensation for mis-sold pensions. Does anybody have any thoughts /experience on this? If I contact them will I be jeopardising my existing DB and DC pensions? Any help or advice gratefully received.
Thanks,
Jimmy

TonyMMM

Whether you have any claim at all would rather depend on who did the persuading, and when ?

Marcon

When exactly (or at least to the nearest year) was the mis-selling? Are you sure it hasn't already been reviewed as part of the major mandatory review in the 1990s?

MEM62

JIMMYJIMMY wrote: »

Hello,
I was unfortunate to be mis-sold a pension in my earlier career. I started in a defined benefit pension and was then "persuaded" to change to a defined contribution pension. I then changed back to my DB pension years later. I am planning to retire at the end of this year and I am considering contacting one of these companies who claim to get some compensation for mis-sold pensions.

Does anybody have any thoughts /experience on this? If I contact them will I be jeopardising my existing DB and DC pensions? Any help or advice gratefully received.
Thanks,
Jimmy

'Miss-sold' is a specific (often over-used and inappropriately used) term in respect of financial products. It is more likely that you mean miss-advised. Do you have reason to suspect that you were miss-advised? Have you established that you are actually financially worse off as a result of the advice? It may have been that the recommendation was reasonable at the time.

In respect of claims companies, which fall into same category as ambulance chasers in my opinion, you can be assured that they will take a sizeable percentage of any compensation if you are due any. You already feel that you may have gone to the wrong place for advice in the past, don't repeat that mistake by dealing with the likes of a claims company.

If you really feel this is worth looking into perhaps an IFA is the best person to speak to.

dunstonh

I am planning to retire at the end of this year and I am considering contacting one of these companies who claim to get some compensation for mis-sold pensions.

Aren't you a bit late to that party?

All pensions sold between 1988 and 1994 had a mandatory review on them. Everyone who paid into a pension in that period was contacted to find out information to decide if the pension was missold or not. Based on the answers you gave at the time, they would have decided this. If you did not appeal the decision at the time, you would now be barred from a complaint on those pensions.

So, when you were contacted about the pension review, did you respond? What did they say about your response? Or did you ignore the review?

JIMMYJIMMY_2

Thanks for the comment,
1981 to 1988 DB
1988 to 1993 DC
1993 to 2012 DB

JIMMYJIMMY_2

I have never been contacted about the pension review

DaveMcG

You say 1988 - was it after 29/04/88? Before that date there was no obligation to give best advice, so there are no grounds for a claim on that basis.



Was it a personal pension you switched to, or a employers DC scheme?


If it was an employer's scheme, there wouldn't necessarily have been any advice, but you could complain to the scheme if you feel you have been disadvantaged. It would have been very unusual at that time to have switched from DB to DC unless the scheme was closing.


If it was a personal pension, the advice should have been reviewed automatically in the late 90s. You should write to the provider and ask them for the details of the review. If they say that the advice was given by an independent firm, you are unlikely to get anywhere, as there is almost no chance of a successful claim (firm will probably be out of business and there won't be any records) and the Ombudsman won't look at a complaint.

ringer

In the early nineties I was contacted by a financial advisor, who somehow knew I'd recently left the armed forces. On his recommendation I transferred my pension to an Axa with profits fund and thought little about it for over twenty years.
About two years ogo on another thread on these boards, it was commented that I might have a miss selling claim.
I contacted the Financial Ombudsman, but was in informed that because the company who advised me no longer traded, that they couldn't persu it.
However they pointed me towards the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, who did look in to it and eighteen months later I was awarded some compensation.

Marcon

DaveMcG wrote: »

If it was an employer's scheme, there wouldn't necessarily have been any advice, but you could complain to the scheme if you feel you have been disadvantaged. It would have been very unusual at that time to have switched from DB to DC unless the scheme was closing.

Actually it wasn't that unusual. The classic reason for changing was a belief that the individual would change jobs several times during their career (a point they would need to have confirmed to the adviser for the advice to hold good) and, in the late 1980s, that would have been a perfectly valid reason given the market conditions at the time (i.e. interest rates) and the lack of full revaluation in deferment for most people who were members of a DB scheme.

dunstonh

I suspect that an FSCS claim means no records at all and no record of pension review and a decision made blind with one side of the story. In theory, that should be an easier win for the complainant.