Pensions Advice - a stupid misunderstanding from me

Thriftymissus

Hi, I wanted to post about this as there may be other people who appreciate a heads up — even though I know many people on these boards are very generous with their time, sharing their expertise and may well scoff at such a basic misunderstanding on my part.

over the last decade or so, after my husband died in his early 40s, I’ve taken time to research all of his pensions from various employers and as a result am in receipt of two widow’s pensions and also got various one-off payouts years back when newly bereaved as he had moved around in his work a lot... I’ve also tracked down most of my own former workplace pensions and am in receipt of a tiny monthly sum after a cash payout from one employer I was only with for six months.

so I thought I was pretty savvy when it comes to tracking down pensions. But in later years, after suffering more traumatic loss, my emotional health and in particular, anxiety, has been pretty desperate at times. I’ve got it into my head I could still be missing out on a workplace pension from 1994 and one that’s much more recent but my memory has been severely affected by trauma. 

So I thought I’d turn to an objective pension tracing service from the Government to help me. I signed up for the P**s**ns UK Advice service under the misapprehension that this was part of a UK public service and was surprised to be referred to an adviser from a firm that could be described as ‘marmite’ really and who may be considered more of a salesman for his own company’s products rather than an independent professional.

The actual pension tracing is going on and more news is predicted in the coming weeks but in the meantime I’ve online meetings discussing my current private pension as well as my current income and expenditure. 

There is absolutely no pressure selling and it has been made very clear to me that there is no obligation to take on any of the financial advice I’ll be given as a result of these fact-finding meetings. The adviser is nothing but polite, respectful and professional.

But having made the mistake of thinking this is an objective, public service initiative I’m feeling pretty stupid! 

As my emotional health improves, it nevertheless remains a little wobbly around finances and there’s no way I’d have sought non independent advice right now or at any time into the future really when my head is clearer. As I get back on my feet, also after a PTSD diagnosis, I just don’t have my ‘ducks in a row’ as my income from self employment has been pretty erratic but is growing.

I’ve somehow mixed up the gov.uk free pension tracing website with this service, in my mind thinking this service has a public service, official foundation, when it clearly doesn’t. 

I’ve searched online and specifically on this forum for other instances of people making this mistake and can’t find any so wanted to share my naïve experience — I can see there are reviews online but I can’t get the page to work.

I hope this could be useful in a small way and thank you to anyone still awake who has read this far. 

LHW99

It is very unfortunate that the top results on many search engines remain the paid for (sponsored) links, particularly in relation to government services like passport, driving licence etc - and others as you have found.

One thing with a financial company is to check they are properly registered. While an IFA is definately to be preferred, even a properly registered FA is not going to scam you (although their fees might be higher, and the choice of investments much / more restricted).

This is a good place to start:

https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register

If you can't locate them yourself, putting their full name up in this thread (we might guess wrong) is likely to allow others with knowledge to comment. If it is the one I think (looking at their company. No. on Companies House) they are a referrals agency, and will pass you on to another company if they track anything down. In which case they won't be registered themselves, and will get their fees (hopefully) from the firm they recommend if you take up the offer.

That second firm is the one that needs to be registered at the FCA, and which you can look up yourself / ask here about.

wjr4

Tell them you don’t want to work with them anymore and ignore any calls/emails after. 

Marcon

Thriftymissus said:

Hi, I wanted to post about this as there may be other people who appreciate a heads up — even though I know many people on these boards are very generous with their time, sharing their expertise and may well scoff at such a basic misunderstanding on my part.

So you've done what virtually everyone using a search engine has done at some point. Stop kicking yourself and join the rest of us in this particularly wide-membership club!

Thriftymissus said:

The actual pension tracing is going on and more news is predicted in the coming weeks but in the meantime I’ve online meetings discussing my current private pension as well as my current income and expenditure. 

There is absolutely no pressure selling and it has been made very clear to me that there is no obligation to take on any of the financial advice I’ll be given as a result of these fact-finding meetings. The adviser is nothing but polite, respectful and professional.

So hats off to them, especially as you don't appear to be paying for any of the service you've received thus far.

Thriftymissus said:

But having made the mistake of thinking this is an objective, public service initiative I’m feeling pretty stupid! 

I’ve somehow mixed up the gov.uk free pension tracing website with this service, in my mind thinking this service has a public service, official foundation, when it clearly doesn’t. 

Plenty of these 'pension tracing' services have sprung up in recent years and some have provided excellent results for their users, who have been reunited with a long-lost pension they didn't even know they had. How many survive the arrival of the long-overdue Pensions Dashboard is another matter...https://www.pensionsdashboardsprogramme.org.uk/

Marcon

wjr4 said:

Tell them you don’t want to work with them anymore and ignore any calls/emails after. 

Why? If the information is useful and OP isn't being charged for its provision, it's hard to see the sense of scampering off now just because they aren't the government-sponsored service OP originally thought they were.

squirrelpie

LHW99 said:

It is very unfortunate that the top results on many search engines remain the paid for (sponsored) links, particularly in relation to government services like passport, driving licence etc - and others as you have found.

Out of curiosity I searched for the name Thriftymissus gave using google in firefox. The hits I got were: gov.uk, moneyhelper, citizensadvice, gov.uk, age uk, and then the company in question. If I search for passport, I first get a couple of hits from gov.uk, then Irish passport authorities, then the post office. Driving licence gives me four gov.uk hits, then wikipedia and the post office twice.

Maybe people need to take more care setting up their browsers and ad blockers (I use uBlockOrigin) if their results are noticeably worse?

LHW99

squirrelpie said:

LHW99 said:

It is very unfortunate that the top results on many search engines remain the paid for (sponsored) links, particularly in relation to government services like passport, driving licence etc - and others as you have found.

Out of curiosity I searched for the name Thriftymissus gave using google in firefox. The hits I got were: gov.uk, moneyhelper, citizensadvice, gov.uk, age uk, and then the company in question. If I search for passport, I first get a couple of hits from gov.uk, then Irish passport authorities, then the post office. Driving licence gives me four gov.uk hits, then wikipedia and the post office twice.

Maybe people need to take more care setting up their browsers and ad blockers (I use uBlockOrigin) if their results are noticeably worse?

Quite possibly (I know it was a problem, so if that's been sorted, great. Truthfully I didn't check).

If you try "pension advice" however, it does depend on your preferred search engine what comes top - Unbiased is usually there, but certainly with Bing I didn't get the gov.UK links at the top, and it depends on your screen size whether you have to scroll or not (and not everyone will for various and often good reasons).

Thriftymissus

Thanks everyone for responding, and for being empathetic, @marcon is quite right in that I’ll stick with it and see what they come back with. I’m just embarrassed I was going into this at a time when I’d rather have more clarity on my earnings increasing after an uncertain time and had the wrong idea of who I was dealing with. And I’ll also be content to say (which is true) I’ve realised now is not the right time for me to make important financial decisions for personal reasons. It’s a good reminder to get everything in order and potentially seek impartial advice in the coming months. 

wjr4

Marcon said:

wjr4 said:

Tell them you don’t want to work with them anymore and ignore any calls/emails after. 

Why? If the information is useful and OP isn't being charged for its provision, it's hard to see the sense of scampering off now just because they aren't the government-sponsored service OP originally thought they were.

‘was surprised to be referred to an adviser from a firm that could be described as ‘marmite’ really and who may be considered more of a salesman for his own company’s products rather than an independent professional.’ … doesn’t sound too positive. 

Marcon

wjr4 said:

Marcon said:

wjr4 said:

Tell them you don’t want to work with them anymore and ignore any calls/emails after. 

Why? If the information is useful and OP isn't being charged for its provision, it's hard to see the sense of scampering off now just because they aren't the government-sponsored service OP originally thought they were.

‘was surprised to be referred to an adviser from a firm that could be described as ‘marmite’ really and who may be considered more of a salesman for his own company’s products rather than an independent professional.’ … doesn’t sound too positive. 

Completely agree, but in the light of what  OP went on to say, they clearly like Marmite!

Thriftymissus said:

There is absolutely no pressure selling and it has been made very clear to me that there is no obligation to take on any of the financial advice I’ll be given as a result of these fact-finding meetings. The adviser is nothing but polite, respectful and professional.

Thriftymissus

I'm reserving judgement but would rather someone independent over this firm,that has inspired many a discussion on how good they are and how high their fees are