Have you been mis-sold a pension?
Have you received unsuitable pension advice and acted on it? Then you could have lost money meant for your retirement or lost the guaranteed benefits linked with a final salary pension – or both. Your pension is designed to give you an income in retirement, and any major loss of funds or benefits could have a very negative effect on your future standard of living.
Which types of pensions are affected?
Defined Benefit Scheme Transfers
Defined benefit or final salary schemes provide guaranteed, protected rights that provide you with a lump sum and an income for life. Transferring out of this type of scheme will mean losing those guaranteed benefits, and taking on the risk of managing your own pension funds.
In 2018, the Financial Conduct Authority reviewed a range of defined benefit pension transfers carried out by regulated firms. They concluded that it was more likely than not that the advice received was unsuitable, and they have now requested data from every firm.
Potentially, this is now a regulatory time bomb. In fact, the value of defined benefit pension transfer compensation claims paid by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme almost doubled in 2017 to £37.5m. This figure hit £40 million in 2018. There have been 9 SIPP operator failures since then and the FSCS expects to pay compensation in excess of £200m for claims made during 2020-21.
Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP)
SIPPs allow you to take control of the investments within your pension. They are often used by business owners who want to purchase their own commercial property. Or experienced investors who want to take an active role in their investments and/or wish to hold individual shares.
You can hold direct investments in company shares, land, commercial property and a variety of non-standard or obscure investments which carry a high degree of risk. The product charges can also be significantly higher, which will ultimately affect the overall performance of the investments.
This type of product may therefore be unsuitable for many standard investors. What’s more, because of the flexibility of SIPPs, they have been used to carry out scams, or by firms offering clients unregulated investments that generate excessive commissions or introducer fees.
Non-Standard or Obscure Investments
A non-standard investment is usually unregulated, might not be easy to accurately value and not readily realised within 30 days. These are generally part of a SIPP and have featured in many scams involving assets like:
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plots of land with no planning permission
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hotel rooms
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diamonds
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bio oil investments
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storage pods
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carbon credits
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overseas land
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CFDs (Contract For Differences)
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Unregulated high-income corporate bonds
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Unregulated overseas investments
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High risk shares and funds
These assets will usually carry a high degree of risk, and may have been the subject of fraud investigations and pension scandals.
Hallbrook kept us very well informed at each stage and ensured that we understood each part of the process.
Richard Austin
How can Hallbrook help you?
Hallbrook provides unparalleled claims support to people who have been mis-sold financial services. We help them achieve justice and gain the compensation they deserve. We also publish what we’ve learned representing these private investors, to stop other vulnerable people falling victim to these mis-selling scams. This way, we make it possible for anyone to take control of their money and make better-informed decisions. Since 2010 we have successfully recovered over £60 million in compensation and continue to recover millions every year.
Our Fees
Nothing to pay upfront
We operate a conditional fee agreement, which means you only pay us on the successful completion of your claim.
Please see full Terms for cancellation fees following the 14 day cooling off period.
Successful claims
When your claim has successfully completed, we will charge a fee based on the amount of compensation awarded of between 18% and 36% inc VAT.
Our fees also benefit from a Fee Cap, which means you could pay less. For more information see our full Terms.
Appealing a claim
If you have already claimed for compensation but didn’t receive the amount you’re entitled to, we may be able to appeal on your behalf.
This Fee will be deducted from your compensation and upfront fees do not apply. See full Terms.