Don't use Hargreaves Lansdown

xylophone

I’d defiantly report him

A challenging response.:)

TBC15

xylophone wrote: »

A challenging response.:)

Anyone know the opening hours for Specsavers on a Monday:)

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

ZingPowZing wrote: »

I want to share my experience so that others make a better choice than I did.

My case has just run its course with the Financial Ombudsman, and she found in their favour. So I'm liable to pay Hargreaves' industry-leading fees. When I do, the FO will publish their final decision and I'll post a link so that others, especially those looking into transferring a defined benefits pension, avoid Hargreves Lansdown at all costs.

Anyone thinking of transferring out of a DB pension is obliged to buy financial advice. I chose Hargreaves Lansdown. They advised me to do nothing, I insisted on transferring and that's where it became difficult. Hargreaves Lansdown have a fee structure whereby they collect whether or not they make a positive recommendation. Moreover, an insistent client has to find an alternative provider.

Which I did, but then Hargreaves Lansdown wouldn't sign the other's application form, effectively thwarting the process until the deadline ran out.

Long story short, I had to start the process anew. Eventually I gained complete control of my pension and I am very content in this regard for the rest of my days except for Hargreaves Lansdown's part in the process.

Of course Hargreaves Lansdown are at the conservative end of an industry already paranoid about potential future claims and liabilities. I shouldn't have used them. Hypocritically, they still accept DB transfers at one remove. My heartfelt advice to the layman unlikely to be dying soon but considering a DB pension transfer is:

Please don't use HARGREAVES LANSDOWN.

Any news on OPs findings today? Has he paid up?


As OP seems to drop hints and points from his first thread to here. Can I just say that anyone with a degree in common sense does not transfer a DB pension unless they are greedy, in need of money or other. No Financial adviser I know, and the last one I spoke to in setting up my SIPP, would advise on transferring a DB scheme. In fact, they wont even take you money in telling you the answer is no.


But in this instance, OP decided and has said on his other thread, he knows better?

ZingPowZing wrote: »

Ok, short story: you have to buy financial advice if you're looking into transferring a DB pension. I hired a Hargreaves Lansdown adviser. They recommended I do nothing, I insisted on transferring (so, just about the opposite from the assumption someone made above). I have absolute control of that SIPP now and I am very content but, for an insistent client, Hargreaves Lansdown is absolutely the worst choice. That's the warning I want widely seen. I shall put it on the pensions forum when the FO publish the case.

Kind regards.
ZingPowZing

So why did OP decide to take on HL over a trivial matter if, as OP has said, they are content with the performance of their SIPP?


Or is OP upset that he had to pay for advice, even though OP knew better?


I rather gather that in this case, OP wants redress for the fees that he had to pay, and obviously the ombudsmen found in favour of HL and consequently OP is going to have to stump up some cash?

MEM62

ZingPowZing wrote: »

As a way out of the impasse, I offered to sign a waiver, indemnifying Hargreaves Lansdown from any future liability.

You would be unable to do that. Any such indemnity would carry no weight with the regulator.

Malthusian

DairyQueen wrote: »

HL are not IFAs and are not able to offer the regulated advice required for a DB transfer. End of.

Not correct. The advice must be independent of the ceding scheme. As long as it is independent of the scheme it doesn't have to be an IFA, it can be a restricted adviser.

To put it another way: advice from Hargreaves Lansdown (if they have pension transfer permissions and qualifications) is fine unless you are transferring out of an HL defined benefit scheme (if there is such a thing). If your employer is trying to get people out of the DB scheme and pays an Independent Financial Adviser on its employees' behalf to advise them, that IFA can't sign off the advice.

If the OP says that HL have pension transfer specialists and he consulted one, there's no reason not to believe him.

If the OP had paid for a full transfer recommendation then HL should have provided one, and confirmation that they had done so along with it. Providing a full recommendation, charging them for it and then refusing to sign the form is not on.

However it sounds from his posts that he didn't. He paid for triage, or a Transfer Value Analysis, or something that fell short of a full recommendation. A Transfer Value Analysis is only the first stage in a DB transfer recommendation. If he didn't proceed to receiving a full recommendation then there was no way HL was ever going to sign the form, and no way even the most dozy Ombudsman would make them.

ZingPowZing wrote:

At that point, between the analysis and the report, if the adviser states that the client's case is "in the balance", and the client commits to buying that report, then the client is trapped.

Not at all. They are free to either ask HL to provide a full recommendation, or ask another adviser to provide a full recommendation, or do nothing and stay in the DB scheme. They are not trapped in the slightest. What they paid for the Transfer Value Analysis is a sunk cost - they have got what they paid for.

The adviser will simply gather information sufficient to justify a negative recommendation.

Doesn't matter as once you have had a full recommendation, positive or negative, you have what you need to transfer.

Their small print states that HL will not "facilitate" a transfer for an insistent client.

That means they won't allow you to transfer the DB pension to HL without a postive recommendation. Once you had paid for and received a full recommendation however, you would have been able to transfer to a different SIPP provider that accepts "insistent clients". However you apparently stopped short before this stage.

Malthusian

The OP is however absolutely correct in one sense. Just not for the reason he gives. If you are going to take advice on a DB transfer it should be from an Independent Financial Adviser, not a restricted sales outfit like HL.

There's nothing hypocritical about HL accepting DC to DC transfers where the original transfer came from an insistent client DB transfer. Firstly, they have no way of never knowing that it was originally an insistent DB transfer. Secondly, the principle here is that you shouldn't accept money from someone for helping them hang themselves. In the case of a DC to DC transfer the client has already hung themselves (if the DB transfer was a bad idea) so HL is not culpable and there is no hypocrisy.

Albermarle

If your employer is trying to get people out of the DB scheme and pays an Independent Financial Adviser on its employees' behalf to advise them, that IFA can't sign off the advice.

Are you sure about that?
I have just reread the last CETV offer I had last year. The company offered the services of an IFA at the company's expense.
Quote' they will provide a clear written recommendation on whether or not you should accept the offer; and they will have a direct duty to you to offer structured and unbiased advice '

Malthusian

Albermarle wrote: »

Are you sure about that?

Now you've asked I'm not, and Money Advice Service certainly suggests I'm wrong (they say it is good practice for employers to pay for advice).

I'm now confused as to what Section 48 does mean by "independent advice", as it certainly isn't in the "IFA" sense.

[Deleted User]

Malthusian - Hargreaves Lansdown provided a full transfer recommendation. They provided a declaration to the effect that they had provided advice. What they wouldn't do is engage with an alternative SIPP provider and my experience was that I was unable to transfer because the compliance dept of every potential SIPP provider that I approached advised that they would not accept the transfer without the signature of HL's financial adviser on their own form.

stephenadarglas

I've read nothing here that will stop me using HL. The OP has no justification for his 'don't use HL' comment.