Pension mis-selling happens when a financial adviser or company talks people into transferring their pension into unsuitable, unregulated, or failed schemes. If you believe you were misled you may be able to claim compensation for the mis-selling of your pension.
Simply losing money on a pension doesn’t mean it was mis-sold. But if you transferred your pension into another scheme and your financial adviser did not give you sufficient information about the product, the new pension scheme was unsuitable for your needs, or the advisor misled you, you may be a victim of mis-selling.
Keller Postman UK helps people in England & Wales claim back what they are due. We can even help you get your money back if the provider or adviser has gone out of business.
Claiming with us is straightforward, free to sign up, and we act on a no-win, no-fee basis.
If you believe that your pension was mis-sold, contact us to find out how we can help. If you are unsure if you have a claim, we can find this out for you.
Below are just some of the mi-sold pension schemes we are helping with. Where multiple people have received negligent or fraudulent pension advice from the same professional advisor/company, we may be able to help them to recover their losses collectively.
Beaufort Securities Limited was a discretionary fund manager and stockbroker that sold multiple pension products. Despite being in administration, there are still hundreds of investors registering complaints about this firm.
Hartley Pensions Limited has seen itself in increasingly hot water. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has highlighted serious operational and regulatory issues, and many investors have gone online to lament the loss or erosion of their pensions at the hand of the provider.
In 2016, a BBC Panorama programme found that unregulated financial advisors were promising a 10% return after a year of investment into the Cape Verde scheme. If a financial advisor recommended you invest in Resort Group, you may have been mis-sold.
With occupational mis-selling of pensions, victims have transferred from safe and secure final salary/defined benefit pensions into SIPPs, QROPS or other unsuitable personal pensions. As a result of mis-sold pensions set up by the workplace, many people have:
The UK military pension is one of the most reliable and robust in the world and tracks with inflation to ensure that service personnel and their families are looked after. But before 2015, thousands of service personnel were persuaded to move their valuable pension into unregulated, unsuitable private schemes with high risk that could have lost them thousands of pounds. We help those persuaded to transfer their British Armed Forces pension to private schemes claim back what they are due.
Where multiple people have received negligent or fraudulent pension advice from the same professional advisor/company, we can help them to recover their losses collectively. Group actions can be a powerful tool and can have a bigger impact than a single claim.
CONTACT US TO DISCUSS A MIS-SOLD PENSION CLAIM GROUP ACTION
Here are some of the questions our clients have asked our expert lawyers about making mis-sold pensions claims
Many victims of mis-sold pensions are targeted by unregulated salespeople via cold calls using hard-sell, pushy techniques. Often victims of this mis-selling are passed to regulated financial advisers to facilitate the inappropriate transfer. The motivation behind this is usually the generation of fees or commissions for the advisers.
A pension is not necessarily mis-sold if it does not perform to your expectations. Likewise, some investments are unpredictable by nature, and if you have a high-risk pension, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have been mis-sold. However, your financial adviser should have told you about the level of risk involved, and if you were given unsuitable or misleading advice about the potential returns, you could have a claim.
Yes, if your financial adviser advised you to transfer from a final salary scheme to an unsuitable scheme, and you can no longer access your retirement funds because the provider or adviser has since gone out of business, you may have been mis-sold.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protects consumers when financial firms fail. If a UK-regulated adviser has given bad pension advice concerning a pension transfer, and the provider or financial adviser has since gone out of business, the FSCS may pay compensation up to £85,000.
To make a professional negligence claim, you need to demonstrate that you were owed a duty of care, that the professional involved breached this duty, and that this breach caused you to suffer a loss. This can be hard to prove, as a professional is not expected to be right 100% of the time.
To win your case, you must show that another experienced professional in the same field would have given different advice, or that the professional failed to follow recognised good practices.
The result of mis-sold pensions can be devastating. Victims might have:
There are two main funds available to help those who make a successful mis-sold pension claim:
You can make a mis-sold pensions claim without a lawyer. But while a DIY mis-selling claim could save you solicitor's fees, in the end, even if you win, you might walk away with less compensation. This is often due to a lack of understanding of the law/procedures, which can put individuals at a disadvantage when up against savvy (and sometimes aggressive) defence lawyers. And, of course, if you lose your case, you will likely have to pay the other side's costs. Because Keller Postman UK offers no-win, no-fee funding arrangements, you benefit from expert legal support without worrying about costs.
If you were persuaded to transfer your pension to an unsuitable scheme, you might have been mis-sold, and we can help you claim mis-sold pension compensation. We help our clients claim back what they are due via both the FSCS and the FOS. Signing up is straightforward and costs you nothing as we act on a no-win no-fee basis.
Contact us to discuss your case. Signing up is straightforward and costs you nothing as we act on a no-win no-fee basis.
You will only have to pay anything if you win. You will not have to pay anything upfront. Any payment would only come out of the money that we recover on your behalf. We will conduct the claim for you under a no-win, no-fee agreement. If you win, our fees will be deducted from your damages.
Each case is different, but many of those affected by pension scheme mis-selling could be owed many thousands of pounds.
At Keller Postman UK, our Investment Fraud & Mis-selling lawyers deal with a wide range of mis-sold pension cases every day. Here are just some examples of the type of cases we can help with.
Sarah is a teacher. She had a final salary/defined benefit pension through her job. Her financial advisor convinced her to transfer this to a personal pension scheme that later went bust. As a result, Sarah has lost thousands of pounds. We are helping Sarah claim compensation of up to £85,000 from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Tim received a call from a financial advisor telling him he would be better off if he moved his military pension into a SIPP. After confirming that the advisor was UK regulated, he assumed he was receiving high-quality financial advice. However, while a UK-regulated advisor facilitated the transfer, the scheme invested in was based overseas, with the advisor receiving a fee for each transfer made. Tim would have been better sticking with his military pension, something he only realised when he retired. We are helping him to seek compensation for his losses.
Assad had a trusted friend and financial advisor who convinced him to make a final salary pension transfer to a SIPP. However, his friend – who received a high commission for the transfer – did not tell him about the risks. Assad has since lost thousands of pounds and has developed anxiety because of the situation. We believe that the financial advisor was negligent, and we are helping Assad claim compensation via the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
*Names have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
On 29 March 2023, the government published a new briefing paper which provides information on pension scams.
Just 29% of pension fraud reports are sent to the police. In a bid to tackle fraud, the government has launched its new fraud strategy.
The UK is banning cold callers from selling financial products in a bid to crackdown on scams. The blanket ban – which covers unsolicited calls offering any financial product – also extends to legitimate schemes and investments.
CONTACT US IN CONFIDENCE TO DISCUSS YOUR CASE
Keller Postman UK has some of the most skilled investment fraud & mis-selling lawyers in England and Wales. Here are just some of our success stories.
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