Pensionlite and Old Mutual Wealth

Downwiththissortofthing

I had a review of my pension situation undertaken by Pensionlite in August 2017; off the back of their review report, transferred one of my existing pension pots to a fund with Old Mutual Wealth.

That OMW fund has performed fairly badly since and I'm now considering my options.

However, I have also now discovered that Pensionlite is an appointed representative of Intrinsic Financial Planning Limited who are part of the Quilter Group of companies - as are Old Mutual Wealth!

This seems a little fishy to me - at no point did Pensionlite highlight that they were recommending a pension fund within the same group of companies.

Do I have cause to complain to the FCA regarding a conflict of interest?

msallen

Not unless Pensionlite claimed to be an Independent Financial Adviser.

Would you still be looking for a reason to complain if the value of the fund had increased?

dunstonh

This seems a little fishy to me - at no point did Pensionlite highlight that they were recommending a pension fund within the same group of companies.

All intermediaries have to make you aware of their status. IFAs will sing from the hills about it as IFA is the desired adviser type. FAs will mumble and deflect or use words to give the impression they whole of market or close to that. However, it will be in their terms of business.

Old Mutual Wealth is a platform that offers a large range of unit trust/OEIC funds as well as some in house options. It is shortly going whole of market.

Do I have cause to complain to the FCA regarding a conflict of interest?

Not at all. Providers are allowed to distribute own brand products via their own distribution channels. They just cannot refer to themselves as being independent.

So, only if they referred to themselves as IFAs or independent do you have grounds for complaint. If they didn't then you dont. Time and again on these forums we tell people that the choice is either to DIY or use an IFA. Never to use an FA. You used an FA.

Linton

Downwiththissortofthing wrote: »

I had a review of my pension situation undertaken by Pensionlite in August 2017; off the back of their review report, transferred one of my existing pension pots to a fund with Old Mutual Wealth.

That OMW fund has performed fairly badly since and I'm now considering my options.

Many funds have performed fairly badly since August 2017 until fairly recently. The past year has not been good for investors, though there has been some recovery since the new year. What is your fund and why do you think it was unusually bad?

Downwiththissortofthing

Thank you for your responses.

I've just checked the 'Terms of Business and Key Facts' Pensionlite sent me by way of introduction back in February 2016 and the headline on page 4 proudly states

'Pensionlite are Independent Financial Advisers and as our name suggests we specialise in pensions...'

Pensionlite believe that everyone should have access to Independent Advice without concern about cost.

To support this belief we provide Free, independent and no obligation review and recommendation reports, in writing by post to all prospective clients.

Does this change my situation with regard to approaching the FCA?

Whether or not the fund has performed well or badly is irrelevant - if the advice I received may have been compromised, then the trust I put in Pensionlite is massively undermined and I have an issue with this.

dunstonh

Does this change my situation with regard to approaching the FCA?

No. Intrinsic was still converting their IFAs to restricted at that time. It looks like Pensionlite changed around 2016/17. There is no mention of IFA status on their website but there are mentions of restrictions and IFAs cannot have restrictions.
https://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/news/old-mutual-gives-intrinsic-ifas-deadline-to-turn-restricted/a916257

Whether or not the fund has performed well or badly is irrelevant - if the advice I received may have been compromised,

How was the advice compromised?
Was what they recommended unsuitable or suitable?
Use of the OMW platform is not an issue as that is a mainstream platform and one of the biggest in the country. Its used by IFAs and FAs. You wont get any complaint upheld on that basis. What really matters is the investment solution and you havent said a word about that.

the trust I put in Pensionlite is massively undermined and I have an issue with this.

Its a common risk when you use factory line services. It doesnt matter what the product is. they have a centralised solution and want all the staff singing from the same hymn sheet. The FCA actually likes that with medium to larger firms.

Linton

From the FCA Register
Pensionlite is now only an "apppointed representative". The status changed in May 2017. The earliest reference to them being a representative of Insight also dates from 2017. "Pensionlite" was a trading name of Advicelite Ltd.



From Companies House
It looks like Pensionlite Ltd was set up as a separate company at the end of 2016.


The Pensionlite website states it is a representative and makes no claims either explicit or implied, to being IFAs.


So it seems that the company called "Pensionlite" now is rather different to the one you first dealt with in 2016.

Downwiththissortofthing

Interesting reading that timeline....Pensionlite introduced themselves to me as an IFA in February 2017 (not 2016 as per my previous post), gave me a recommendation report in June 2017 and I instructed them to transfer to their recommended OMW fund in August 2017.

At no point during this 6 month period did they inform me that they were no longer independent.

I think I will raise this with the FCA and see what their view is.

dunstonh

I think I will raise this with the FCA and see what their view is.

The FCA does not handle consumer complaints. They will not be interested.

The FCA register shows a change in status but the FCA register does not show when they went restricted from being an IFA. Appointed reps can be IFAs or FAs. Nowadays the vast majority of IFAs are directly authorised. The FCA register does not record the adviser type.

Instrinsic have been around a very long time. They were bought by OMW in 2014. Their move to make their membership restricted was done in stages. Their membership also were given a choice to begin with. They could lose IFA status but remain virtually whole of market for investments. However, the more they restricted, the lower their costs would be with Intrinsic. Then over time, they pushed more and more towards greater restrictions.

You still haven't told us the investments they used. If they used the Wealth Select range or the in-house funds, then you may have a case (although the FCA does allow the use of in-house funds by IFAs, there are disclosure requirements). If they used the self-select range (which is the normal wide market unit trust/OEIC range of funds) then the restrictions were minimal and would not affect you.

sandsy

Downwiththissortofthing wrote: »

Interesting reading that timeline....Pensionlite introduced themselves to me as an IFA in February 2017 (not 2016 as per my previous post), gave me a recommendation report in June 2017 and I instructed them to transfer to their recommended OMW fund in August 2017.

At no point during this 6 month period did they inform me that they were no longer independent.

I think I will raise this with the FCA and see what their view is.

Suggest you raise the issue with the firm itself first. If they don't reply in a way which is satisfactory, you will then have recourse to the Ombudman if you feel you've been misled (but not before raising it with the firm).

However, it's not clear that you've suffered any loss as a result of this so I wouldn't expect too much in the way of any monetary payment.

bob_a_builder

I'm also with Pensionlite and OMW (collective retirement fund) and have same concerns

My original "Independent Pension Review and recommendation report" from them is dated March 2018
It specifically states that "Pensionlite is an independent financial adviser firm which provides advice on products and services from the whole of market without any links to any specific company or institution"