FSAVC Claim Companies

DeePatel

As a Teacher I paid into AVC's. I am now seeing that I may have been mis-sold Free Standing Added Voluntary Contributions. How do I know whether I have been mis-sold AVC's and the company I used made a profit out of my AVC's? What do other Teachers think of this and it is right that I should claim it back? Which companies should I look out for? 

Are there any other Teachers in this same position? 
Dee

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Seeing where?

Hopefully not on Facebook 

Why wouldn't the company make a profit?  That's how financial institutions tend to stay in business.  Along with making your money work for you as well of course.

Marcon

DeePatel said:

As a Teacher I paid into AVC's. I am now seeing that I may have been mis-sold Free Standing Added Voluntary Contributions. How do I know whether I have been mis-sold AVC's and the company I used made a profit out of my AVC's? What do other Teachers think of this and it is right that I should claim it back? Which companies should I look out for? 

Are there any other Teachers in this same position? 
Dee

What makes you think you were mis-sold? This case from the Pensions Ombudsman might be helpful: https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/sites/default/files/decisions/PO-21517.pdf

As you will see, it is not the only one where the PO dismissed the claim.

dunstonh

I am now seeing that I may have been mis-sold Free Standing Added Voluntary Contributions.
How do I know whether I have been mis-sold AVC's

Generally, you would know if you have been.   You don't need an ambulance chaser to make up reasons to try and force compensation where no wrongdoing existed.

and the company I used made a profit out of my AVC's?

You would hope so. it wouldn't be much of a company if it made a loss on the product.

What do other Teachers think of this and it is right that I should claim it back?

FSAVCs have not existed since 2006.   In April 2006, all FSAVCs were reclassified as personal pensions and the product terms changed to match personal pensions.  

Prior to 2006,  AVCs and FSAVCs had pros and cons.  AVCs were often cheaper than FSAVCs.  Although in more recent times, that is no longer the case if you move your PPP (as it now is) to a modern pension (which can also be cheaper than the current AVC offered).  Whereas FSAVCs were not linked to the scheme pension and could be taken earlier than the AVC that was linked to the scheme pension.  AVCs were often limited in choice.  Such as to the Pru AVC.  Whereas individual schemes gave more choice.

So, its a balance of pros and cons based on your objectives.

Which companies should I look out for? 

There are not many ambulance chasers present in this area as it doesn't affect many people and the success rate is low.   184 rejections and 159 uphelds going by FOS ombudsman decisions.  

Reading a number of these, it is clear that claims companies are trying to generate complaints and are using pretty much the same reasons for everyone which are then often easily rejected by firms with good audit trails but harder for firms with poor audit trails.

For example, you tend to see the following reasons given with most CMC generated complaints:



And most rejections have the evidence on file to show they follow the regulator requirements at the time (time is important as the rules changed multiple times over the years and the FOS use the rules of the day and not later rules).   When scattergun, non-personalised complaint reasons are given and evidence exists to show they are lies (or mistaken if you are more liberal in thinking) then it means the person loses credibility.  However, the claims company is hoping that one of their reasons may stick, often due to poor record keeping.

Most of the upholds appear to be where firms can't find the file or it's incomplete and cant evidence what they did at the time.