SERPS AND DUTY OF CARE

SERPS_issues

At some point in the 1980's people were given the option to opt out of SERPs.

SERPs was a voluntary scheme by which you made additional NI contributions to the state pension.

Like many others I was in a company pension and making the SERP additional payment.

From 1988 we were allowed to put that additional money into either a final salary scheme or a private pension.

My "SERPS" money went into an Abbey National Retirement Investment Account (ANRIA,and RIA) .. in reality an invested pension pot

I left that company in the early 90's and the pension became deferred.

The UK abandoned SERPs in 2002.
Abbey closed down their RIAs and they went dormant just earning pitiful interest, I can't be sure of the exact date but I think it was about the same time

My ANRIA was earning virtually nothing for 10 years.

Then some chance advice led me to move it into a SIPP where it has increased in value.

If I'd acted earlier, the compound interest over a further 10 years would have been substantial.

Until recently I blamed myself for ignoring it, however over the last few years, I have  realised that there is a whole duty of care element missing.

Abbey (now Santander) should have offered better investments to its customers with clear advice as to why it was in their best interests.

This may have been the case with other RIA (Retirement Investment Account) providers who also failed to act in the best interests of their customers.

My suspicion is that there are 1000's of people like me in the UK who have lost a large amount of money (10's of thousands) by their "SERPs" funds not being invested properly.

The money in those dormant accounts would have been invested by the financial organisations, and they will have made profit from our funds without sharing it fairly with us.

I think this is a topic worthy of Martin's investigation.

Ayr_Rage

I think ML's advice would be "always keep an eye on how your investments are doing"

If you knew your ANRIA was earning "virtually nothing" for 10 years why didn't you take any action ?

Moral of your story, you should have acted earlier.

Duty of care doesn't apply here.

Devongardener

You should have been receiving annual statements, even if the account was effectively dormant, as it sounds like you were getting some return on the investment.  Banks don’t offer advice on better investments. As you say yourself, it was up to you to either get advice from IFA or move  your investment to better funds yourself.