contracting out

mdevall

Hi
I have been made aware that I may have been misled in contracting out of SERPS. Does anybody know anything about this?

A company called Tekram Goldberg have been in contact with me regarding this. BEWARE they want £500 up front to fight your claim & their registered office is based in Spain so laws do not apply to UK.

dunstonh

I have been made aware that I may have been misled in contracting out of SERPS. Does anybody know anything about this?

Frequent subject. Its basically a scam by some dodgy claims companies. Do a search on Morgan Green, Tekram Goldberg (there are others as well but those two will give you the info supporting this).

In summary, the FSA did a review of contracting out and found a failure rate of around 1.5% of cases. That is a very low failure rate for any product. Basically, if you were contracted out under the age of 45 (40 for women) then its a valid sale.

Gives you background on the subject: http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2007/059.shtml

Gives you information to work out if you were mis-sold or not: http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/pdfs/s2p_wrongly_advised.pdf

Basically these claims companies are working on a hypthetical success rate of 1.5% average. So, for every 100 people they sign up maybe 2 are successful. However, they have made around £55000 for that success rate just on the initial fee. All for sending a standard text template letter that isnt personalised in any way.

These companies are scum. They give good claims management companies are bad reputation, they create masses of administration that has to be paid for (by the consumer ultimately) and their actions have highlighted issues with the funding of the FOS due to the number of false claims they have submitted.

bigbloke45

Why did you contract out in the first place? Was it because you thought you would get more money at retirement?

Would you be complaining if your investment had produced far more income at retirement than having not contracted out?

Ask yourself who did the mis-selling, was it your adviser or was it your sense of greed at the time?

Also, how long ago did you contract out? Have you paid any attention to your funds since you made the decision? It was your choice and therefore your responsibility; You can't just come back after so many years and say you've been mis-sold just because the investment didn't do so well.

mdevall

Thanks for dunstonh's constructive reply.
as per bigbloke45- there is nothing wrong with trying to get the most for your money. I wasnt trying to be greedy I was just trying to ascertain if I had been misled after this phone call I had received.