Data Protection

Gsea

Thoughts please,

A couple of years ago I decided I no longer wanted to retain my financial advisor on an ongoing basis. I communicated this to both the financial advisor and my pension company and both acknowledged receipt of the instruction.

Recently I received a communication from the financial advisor, and in that communication, they quoted the value of my pension fund the day before they sent the communication. Alarm bells started to ring, because as far as I was concerned, they should no longer have access to that account. I asked the pension company to investigate how this was possible. They responded, accepting that they failed to revoke the financial advisor's access. They have offered compensation at £150.00 and said that if I did not want to accept the compensation, I could refer the matter to the FOS/FCA.

What’s your thoughts please. Is their offer of compensation proportionate to them not protecting my private and personal data, or should I raise a complaint with the FOS/FCA.

I’m still awaiting a response from the financial advisor but not sure what expect from them. They accessed my private and personal data, knowing they no longer represented me.

TIA

Brie

You communicated to both the advisor AND the pension company and neither of them took any notice.  I'd be wanting compensation from both and then also referring it on for further investigation.

eskbanker

£150 seems like a reasonable offer in the circumstances - it's obviously an administrative error but one that doesn't involve any loss or even inconvenience for you.

You'd have the right to go to FOS (not FCA) if you felt inclined not to accept, but it would take many months to go through their process and it's far from certain that they'd view the matter any differently.  Likewise you could complain to the ICO, although they wouldn't have any role in determining compensation.

dunstonh

A couple of years ago I decided I no longer wanted to retain my financial advisor on an ongoing basis. I communicated this to both the financial advisor and my pension company and both acknowledged receipt of the instruction.

That is a vague instruction.

For example, it doesn't say you do not wish the financial adviser to have any access anymore.  It just says you don't want to retain them on an ongoing basis.     So, that could be interpreted as an instruction to turn off the ongoing remuneration.  

What’s your thoughts please. Is their offer of compensation proportionate to them not protecting my private and personal data, or should I raise a complaint with the FOS/FCA.

You are lucky to get £150 as the instruction is vague.  Indeed, it is more likely it is a simple goodwill gesture rather than an admittance of fault.

you have suffered no loss and had no distress and your instruction was unclear.   So, £150 is a win.

I’m still awaiting a response from the financial advisor but not sure what expect from them. They accessed my private and personal data, knowing they no longer represented me.

I would not expect a penny from the adviser, and there is no reason to. Moving from an ongoing client to transactional does not require the adviser firm to remove themselves as agent on any policies unless you specifically state as much.   The only requirement is that the ongoing fee ceased.

DullGreyGuy

What damage have you suffered as a result of the breach? In what way has it caused you distress or embarrassment? 

Assuming the answer is none across the board then £150 sounds a generous offer.

Marcon

Take the £150 and next time ensure your instructions are completely clear. As others have said, from your post it sounds as if you were far from clear.

Gsea

Hi all,

Thanks for your opinions. I will indeed accept the offer.

Perhaps my instructions were vague, and I presumed revoking access was an obvious action. The pension company said the changes required to complete the instruction were not fully actioned by them and apologise for the level of service in this case.

 

 Thanks guys!

dunstonh

Perhaps my instructions were vague, and I presumed revoking access was an obvious action.

Advisers work on either a transactional basis (i.e. one off or periodic ad-hoc) or ongoing basis.    

Where an adviser works on transactional, they will give the advice and carry out the transaction but the policy will still remain on their agency.    And by ongoing, they get paid a fee to provide regular ongoing advice.

So, terminology was probably at play here.   Your reference to wanting to end the ongoing service would have seen the adviser log onto the platform and set the remuneration to zero and end any diary tasks and remove any integrations they have with the software they use to provide ongoing advice.  An adviser will not delete your data. That will be held for as long as the company exists and that is allowed within the data protection act.    And an adviser cannot remove themselves from a policy. Only the provider can.

The platform/provider can also turn off the ongoing at their end.  So, if the adviser got their first, they would see it was zero and leave it at that.   If they beat the adviser, then they would set it to zero and leave it at that.

Unless you used words similar to please remove the adviser from my pension or revoke adviser access, they wouldn't do it.

 The pension company said the changes required to complete the instruction were not fully actioned by them and apologise for the level of service in this case.

To deal with a complaint costs money for big players.   The quicker they can end the complaint, the cheaper it is and that means they often pay small amounts on cases of no wrongdoing because it is cheaper.       In this case, they acknowledge what you have said, apologise, deal with it and give you a £150 and move onto the next one.  Rather than spend the next 6-24 months arguing the case.  If you are still with that provider, there is even more of an incentive to keep you as a customer.   If you were no longer a customer, they may not have been as generous.

 Thanks guys!

Enjoy the £150.

Gsea

Thank you dunstonh.

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