Advice

rhian27

Hi 
My mum was sold an annuity pension last year through a broker. The pension was sold to her as having death benefits and a set end value. A year later she has been informed that there were no death benefits on the policy and that they could be added at a cost that would be back dated to the beginning of the policy. This has meant she has lost around £6000 of her end value.

my question is does this count as a mid sold pension and could she have any right to compensation as she agreed to the policy with death benefits and only a year later has been informed otherwise. She is very upset and has been emailing and calling the broker back and forth who place the blame with the pension company not themselves 

any advice would be welcome 

Steve_666_

You have documented evidence of this?

rhian27

Yes mum has paperwork and emails

MEM62

rhian27 said:

Yes mum has paperwork and emails

Then her first step is a formal complaint to the broker.  

dunstonh

My mum was sold an annuity pension last year through a broker. 

Broker or adviser?  (consumer protection is lower with brokers)

 The pension was sold to her as having death benefits and a set end value.

So, was this a fixed term annuity or a lifetime annuity?  (latter wouldn't have a set end value)

my question is does this count as a mid sold pension and could she have any right to compensation as she agreed to the policy with death benefits and only a year later has been informed otherwise.

Depends on the audit trail and whether it was advised or not.  

She is very upset and has been emailing and calling the broker back and forth who place the blame with the pension company not themselves 

If its a broker, then it may well be the insurer.  If its an adviser, then the liability would be with the adviser to check what is set up matches what was advised.

However, the problem is that its unlikely a complaint, if upheld, would give her death benefits for free.   She got the wrong policy and the broker is able to unwind that with the insurer and correct it to what it should have been.  However, they are not required to cover the cost difference as the lower figure would be what she would have got if done correctly in the first place.

Indeed, she may be better off because of this error as its likely the adjustment is using current annuity rates and they are higher than a year ago.    So, the most likely outcome is a "sorry for inconvenience" goodwill gesture of £100-£250.   However, we don't have the audit trail etc so that is just a quick and dirty opinion.