Non responsive / missing pension trustee/s

lohr500

A further update for anyone in the same situation or following this thread

After a lot more chasing of the old pension provider by ourselves, they finally requested the Pensions Regulator to appoint a new trustee for the company pension scheme due.to their inability to contact any of the old trustees.

As far as we can tell neither the FOS nor POS were of any assistance in the case. 

The new trustees of the old scheme are now in possession of the required transfer document requests and have acknowledged that they will process the request without delay as soon as they receive the required paperwork from the new scheme provider.
The new provider is being sent the forms from our IFA this week, so we are now very hopeful that the transfer will finally take place.

This whole fiasco has been going on now for several years and I feel very sorry for anyone in the same situation who needs access to their pension funds quickly. We are fortunate in that we didn't need to tap into this pension pot urgently. We just wanted to move it to a company with a better performing fund management history.

Anyway, after a lot of perseverance by us, we can now see light at the end of the tunnel. 
 

 

robatwork

Of course this is all incompetence and accidental mismanagement by the trustees, and in no way negligently waiting for some of the pensioners to die while it all takes years to sort out 

Albermarle

After a lot more chasing of the old pension provider by ourselves, they finally requested the Pensions Regulator to appoint a new trustee for the company pension scheme due.to their inability to contact any of the old trustees.

Glad you got it sorted . You may remember I replied earlier in the thread as I had a similar situation . Locked out of getting any info about my DC pension due to impossibility of contacting trustees from the past .

In the end new trustees were not appointed but the pension was given over to me personally , after I signed a few forms.

Took over 3 years and I got £200 compensation.

So seems like there are two possible solutions for anyone else in the same boat.

Malthusian

lohr500 said:

As far as we can tell neither the FOS nor POS were of any assistance in the case. 

 

Possibly not, but if you hadn't gone to the FOS and POS the pension company could have strung you along indefinitely until you did. So even if the POS never lifted a finger beyond assigning you a case number and a place in the queue, it wasn't a waste of time. The pension company may have reacted more quickly knowing that an Ombudsman complaint was eventually coming down the road.

lohr500

@ Malthusian : Possibly. It may have encouraged them to finally pull their finger out.

@ Albermarle : I do remember your input which was appreciated. I suspect Scottish Widows probably care more for their reputation than the current provider for my wife's pension. I will name them in due course, but it looks as though their speciality is mopping up failed providers rather than focussing on new business. No doubt this is why they haven't been quick out of the blocks to sort out the issue. 

lohr500

And so, as a final update to the saga, the transfer payment has been made by the old company (Phoenix Life) and received by the new (AEGON).

I pity anyone else whose pensions or investments are managed by Phoenix Life. It may well not be their fault that the old pension scheme trustees disappeared without trace, but their lack of pace in helping to find a resolution was appalling.

Looking at the Trustpilot reviews for Phoenix Life, it would seem as though our experience is far from unique.

plumb1_2

Yes I’ve had a bad experience with Phoenix Life, with a endowment policy they took over.

Albermarle

lohr500 said:

And so, as a final update to the saga, the transfer payment has been made by the old company (Phoenix Life) and received by the new (AEGON).

I pity anyone else whose pensions or investments are managed by Phoenix Life. It may well not be their fault that the old pension scheme trustees disappeared without trace, but their lack of pace in helping to find a resolution was appalling.

Looking at the Trustpilot reviews for Phoenix Life, it would seem as though our experience is far from unique.

Did you get any compensation? At least I got £200 for my similar saga with SW.

lohr500

No compensation so far.

The appointed trustee has raised a formal complaint though which includes a request for the difference in transfer value to be paid by Phoenix due to their internal delay in processing the paperwork. The policy value had dropped by around £1200 from the point when the transfer value was agreed and all the paperwork was in place at our end, to the point where they actioned the transfer.

I am not hopeful we will receive anything. I am just relieved that we have finally managed to transfer out the funds from Phoenix and invest the money in our AEGON pension wrapper.