Compensation for incorrect CETV

Mazer

I transferred a DB pension from Phoenix Life in 2017 when I was 55, I got £304k which they transferred to my Fidelity SIPP. I took 25% tax free cash and other payments from the SIPP over the last few years. Phoenix life contacted me in January 2025 to say they had incorrectly valued the CETV and they owed me a further £64k. They transferred £72k to my Fidelity SIPP in April 2025. They told me that I would be due compensation to put me back in the position I should have been if they had given me the £64k 9 years ago. Since that things have really stalled as Phoenix are asking Fidelity to prove a loss to my pension and Fidelity are not sending sufficient information for Phoenix to work out a figure. I believe this type of incident has happened to others and would be grateful if anyone would share their experience of trying to bring this to a conclusion. Thanks

Marcon

Have you made formal complaints to both Phoenix Life and Fidelity, using their complaints procedures? If not, do so now.

If you have already done so:

• Have you yet had a final reply from each of them?
• If not, how long ago did you make the complaints?

Mazer

I have raised it as a complaint with both Fidelity and Phoenix but have not had a final conclusion. I have been incredibly lax about this tbh and haven't been on top of it at all. I was given a verbal offer of £10k from Phoenix on 9 December 2025 but this was not followed up with a letter. Phoenix have now taken my case from the original complaint handler and I have now got a new contact in their complaints team. They said they rely on actuaries to work out the financial loss and need information about how my SIPP was invested 9 years ago. I have had the new complaints handler for only 4 weeks. I have also now got my wealth manager in Fidelity involved. I feel the onus is on me to prove a loss but I think phoenix should look at how they benefited from my £64k for the last 9 years.

Marcon

Full marks for a splendidly honest answer - although I suspect about 80% of the population would have been equally 'relaxed' about all this, possibly bewildered into inaction by the inscrutable world known colloquially as 'pensions'.

I feel the onus is on me to prove a loss but I think phoenix should look at how they benefited from my £64k for the last 9 years.

The question isn't how Phoenix benefited, but how you lost out, which isn't the same thing at all. It may not be a calculation you are able to provide. That said, you might be able to help things along if you have any records to show how your SIPP has been invested over the years, most especially what fund switches (if any) you instigated, and when. If you can't, and Fidelity can't, then there may have to a certain amount of realistic guesswork going on - it's what happens when actual facts can't for some reason be provided.

I think now might be a good time to take more of an active involvement, perhaps by writing (email is fine) to both Phoenix and Fidelity, and asking them to confirm a timeframe for the matter to be progressed to a satisfactory conclusion.

It's tempting to do a bit of foot stamping and say you want it resolved with a week, or some other timescale which in truth they won't be able to meet. All that happens then is that the recipients look at this, know they can't do it, and back it goes into the too difficult pile… Assuming it is annoying rather than massively urgent, make it clear on the face of your letter/email that you are sending the same request to both parties, and that you are expecting the answer to be this side of Christmas given that you raised your original complaints on [give dates], possibly with the rider that 'ideally you would appreciate a conclusion by the end of November'. That way you look reasonable, but have given a clear indication of the fact you expect some action.

If things aren't sorted by then, the way is clear for you to head for the Pensions Ombudsman with a formal complaint of maladministration - but given there's probably at least a year's wait before the PO will have capacity to do anything with your complaint, it would be much better to resolve things without the need to involve them. Hopefully the approach suggested above will achieve that.

Aylesbury_Duck

Should be quite straightforward. Given your honesty about your lax approach, I suspect you wouldn't have been making active fund choices in the time, so I would have thought that your loss is whatever that £64k would have been worth had it remained invested in your pension from 2017 to 2025, minus the fees normally paid. Some funds will have done very nicely in that time, others less so.

I wonder if they've already done this - why have they sent you £72k and not £64k? Is the £8k difference reflective of growth minus fees as I outlined above? Or is it perhaps some sort of with-profits bonus on the original £64k and you've yet to be compensated for what growth you would have seen had it been invested for those eight years?

dunstonh

 Since that things have really stalled as Phoenix are asking Fidelity to prove a loss to my pension and Fidelity are not sending sufficient information for Phoenix to work out a figure. I believe this type of incident has happened to others and would be grateful if anyone would share their experience of trying to bring this to a conclusion. Thanks

That is the typical scenario. They I have to place you in the position you would have occupied had you transferred that money. They require Fidelity to provide that information. It is a routine information request that providers handle regularly.

Ultimately, if Fidelity doesn’t cooperate, Phoenix must make an actuarial decision that may or may not benefit you.

I feel the onus is on me to prove a loss but I think phoenix should look at how they benefited from my £64k for the last 9 years.

Broadly speaking, that is how the law operates. They must place you in the position you should have been in but you are not meant to profit from it either. So, it requires some cooperation.

Phoenix won't be benefiting from it. They will uplift by the amount of how the investments would have performed if it was for them. They want to know if Fidelity performed by more and if so, they will uplift it further. In no scenario will Phoenix benefit.