Sovereign Pension Services - dealing with my deceased husbands affairs

topsy73

My husband passed away suddenly on March 30th this year. Generally everything financially has been very easy to deal with and most pension funds are already sorted.  Sovereign however is another matter...going through my husbands paperwork ( he was fastidious), I was able to contact them and advise of his passing on the 22nd April - at this point the call handler advised me that the policy was worth approx £1000, after putting the phone down and working through some more paperwork it became apparent that he had transferred two historic pensions over to this fund in June 2011- £12530 and £3039 - other paperwork shows that in 2014 Cash was £3638.09, Equities £12,500 and other which I believe was an insolvent company £1  - total £16,139.09 - and transfer values £39,179.46...the paper trail then appears to go cold.  So at present they are trying to advise that his pension fund has lost £15000?  I know he used to mention going down the route of a mis-sold pension and I now think it may have been this one.  Has anyone had any dealings with this company?  Has anyone got any advice re what I have written?  I did write a strongly worded letter to them following my discovery but 6 weeks on no response - I have just rung them and am awaiting a call back

Linton

Sovereign appear to be a legit company, authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, with accounts filed since they were formed in 2003.

It may well be a complete red herring and if so I apologise but.......

What does make me a little suspicious is that your husband thought there may have been  mis-selling plus one of the investments went bust plus you mention a "transfer value" different to the value of the investments which suggests a DB pension may be involved plus Sovereign make a point of saying they deal with QROPS.

QROPs are foreign pensions to which UK pensions may be transferred.  A while ago this provided a rather dubious route, now closely regulated as it was often used in scams, whereby pensions could be "liberated" - ie cashed in avoiding the constraints such as age which apply to UK pensions.  Is there any chance/evidence your husband was persuaded to go down that route? Was the "transfer value" for a different, perhaps employer, pension?

topsy73

Linton said:

Sovereign appear to be a legit company, authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, with accounts filed since they were formed in 2003.

It may well be a complete red herring and if so I apologise but.......

What does make me a little suspicious is that your husband thought there may have been  mis-selling plus one of the investments went bust plus you mention a "transfer value" different to the value of the investments which suggests a DB pension may be involved plus Sovereign make a point of saying they deal with QROPS.

QROPs are foreign pensions to which UK pensions may be transferred.  A while ago this provided a rather dubious route, now closely regulated as it was often used in scams, whereby pensions could be "liberated" - ie cashed in avoiding the constraints such as age which apply to UK pensions.  Is there any chance/evidence your husband was persuaded to go down that route? Was the "transfer value" for a different, perhaps employer, pension?

Thanks for getting back to me...I have subseuently spoken to Sovereign today and it appears it was the advice of his financial advisor at fault and not them...however the named company is not our normal FA...the company is called The Advice Centre for Mortgages...and they have now been dissolved....the sum is also looking closer to £35k...but a glimmer of hope is I can go through the FCSC...

macman

You should be aware that a poorly performing pension is not the same as one that has been mis-sold (though it could of course be both). You cannot get compensation purely on the grounds of poor performance, because no scheme offers guaranteed returns.
You may also find that the value now is considerably more than it was a few weeks into lockdown (6 weeks ago), as the market crashed more than 20%, but has now made a substantial recovery

Linton

macman said:

You should be aware that a poorly performing pension is not the same as one that has been mis-sold (though it could of course be both).

True, but in this case wire it appears that £35K has been reduced to £1K in 6 years.  It would be difficult to find a mainstream investment appropriate for the OPs husband which would have done that badly in a generally rising market for both equities and bonds.

Linton

topsy73 said:

Linton said:

Sovereign appear to be a legit company, authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, with accounts filed since they were formed in 2003.

It may well be a complete red herring and if so I apologise but.......

What does make me a little suspicious is that your husband thought there may have been  mis-selling plus one of the investments went bust plus you mention a "transfer value" different to the value of the investments which suggests a DB pension may be involved plus Sovereign make a point of saying they deal with QROPS.

QROPs are foreign pensions to which UK pensions may be transferred.  A while ago this provided a rather dubious route, now closely regulated as it was often used in scams, whereby pensions could be "liberated" - ie cashed in avoiding the constraints such as age which apply to UK pensions.  Is there any chance/evidence your husband was persuaded to go down that route? Was the "transfer value" for a different, perhaps employer, pension?

Thanks for getting back to me...I have subseuently spoken to Sovereign today and it appears it was the advice of his financial advisor at fault and not them...however the named company is not our normal FA...the company is called The Advice Centre for Mortgages...and they have now been dissolved....the sum is also looking closer to £35k...but a glimmer of hope is I can go through the FCSC...

See https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?id=001b000000MfHtsAAF
Also see: https://www.fscs.org.uk/failed-firms/the-advice-centre/
It is common for people offering dubious investments to use a legit company to do the routine work.  I guess it adds a veneer of respectability.
I hope you are able to sort things out.

topsy73

macman said:

You should be aware that a poorly performing pension is not the same as one that has been mis-sold (though it could of course be both). You cannot get compensation purely on the grounds of poor performance, because no scheme offers guaranteed returns.
You may also find that the value now is considerably more than it was a few weeks into lockdown (6 weeks ago), as the market crashed more than 20%, but has now made a substantial recovery

The Sovereign Rep actually offered the info that a number of people they have dealt with had complained to the FCSC and been successful...involved with this company...as I said to my parents what I didn't have I don't miss but it is the principle and the fact I have a 7yr old to look after....thanks again for your input

topsy73

Linton said:

topsy73 said:

Linton said:

Sovereign appear to be a legit company, authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, with accounts filed since they were formed in 2003.

It may well be a complete red herring and if so I apologise but.......

What does make me a little suspicious is that your husband thought there may have been  mis-selling plus one of the investments went bust plus you mention a "transfer value" different to the value of the investments which suggests a DB pension may be involved plus Sovereign make a point of saying they deal with QROPS.

QROPs are foreign pensions to which UK pensions may be transferred.  A while ago this provided a rather dubious route, now closely regulated as it was often used in scams, whereby pensions could be "liberated" - ie cashed in avoiding the constraints such as age which apply to UK pensions.  Is there any chance/evidence your husband was persuaded to go down that route? Was the "transfer value" for a different, perhaps employer, pension?

Thanks for getting back to me...I have subseuently spoken to Sovereign today and it appears it was the advice of his financial advisor at fault and not them...however the named company is not our normal FA...the company is called The Advice Centre for Mortgages...and they have now been dissolved....the sum is also looking closer to £35k...but a glimmer of hope is I can go through the FCSC...

See https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?id=001b000000MfHtsAAF
Also see: https://www.fscs.org.uk/failed-firms/the-advice-centre/
It is common for people offering dubious investments to use a legit company to do the routine work.  I guess it adds a veneer of respectability.
I hope you are able to sort things out.

They come up on their list and inputing a couple details it advises me I may have a claim - thankfully I have a ream of paperwork which will hopefully help me - thanks again for your input - I will update any further info

topsy73

Just wanted to update on this...So I went down the FSCS route and finally submitted around end of Sept....the decision was finalised just before Christmas and payment received today...however this is not the end of the story...this is in relation to monies lost  on notional increase in growth of pension....so in the end a completely different provided....I have now been advised I potentially have another claim for mis investment of pension money against the Scottish advise centre for mortgages....so down the investments route....whilst doing some digging for the original claim I found that one of his investments through this SIPP to the value of £20k ended up with the serious fraud squad resulting in the directors being jailed for quite some time....so there is hope in this claim also...