Was my pension transfer the wrong thing to do?

What is a final salary pension?

Also referred to as a defined benefit pension or final salary schemes, these are a type of workplace pension. Rather than gradually building up a pension pot for retirement, it provides a specified pension payment for the rest of your life, depending on your final employee terminal earnings or average salary. A defined benefit may be provided as a lump-sum payment or a series of payments. Some of these schemes also have generous death benefits.

As defined benefit pension or final salary schemes are usually a very solid and dependable source of income for retirement, there must be an extremely good reason for someone to want to transfer this into a riskier type of investment.

Getting the right financial advice on this is very important. There are strict rules provided by the Government watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, that financial advisers must follow to ensure the pension transfer has not been mis-sold. If you feel that you weren’t given the right pension advice, please contact us and we can talk through your options.

So was my pension transfer the wrong thing to do?

Pension transfers are a big decision and transferring out of a final salary scheme is rarely good advice. However, many people were advised to do that due to negligent financial advice. Evans Hughes are financial mis-selling experts and specialise in helping clients claim compensation when they have been given negligent financial advice to transfer their pensions.

Those who received negligent financial advice to transfer out of their defined benefit pension scheme were often mis-sold the benefits of doing so. For those looking to recover their pension money, there are strict time limits within which to make a compensation claim. It is therefore important to get specialist help as soon as possible. Do not leave yourself out of pocket for your retirement.

Who is affected by defined benefit pension transfers (final salary transfers)?

People who worked in the public sector or nationalised industries, such as those listed below, may have been a member of a defined benefit/final salary employer pension scheme:

• Miners
• British Steel
• Railways
• British Telecom
• NHS
• Dockers
• Local Government
• Civil Service
• Teachers
• Armed Forces
• Emergency Services
• Rolls-Royce
• Jaguar Land Rover
• Transport for London
• Barclays Bank UK

Compensation for negligent financial advice in transferring your pension

In June 2020, Government backed financial industry watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced measures to tackle the issues in the defined benefit pension transfer market. Pension freedoms introduced by the Government in 2015 have already been implicated as a source of consumer harm by the FCA.

Defined benefit pension mis-selling can unknowingly occur due to poor financial advice leaving you with less than you were expecting in your retirement. Evans Hughes specialise in helping clients who have been given negligent final salary pension advice. We have extended permissions to seek out, advise and represent clients in this expert area of claims.

Whilst these transfers may have been made many years ago, it is still possible to claim compensation if you are the widow of someone who transferred their pension, or if the Independent Financial Adviser has gone out of business, has been taken over or changed its name.

Until our specialist team of financial mis-selling lawyers get an up-to-date valuation of the pension that our clients would have had, clients often do not realise how much they have lost out, which can be a significant amount. Evans Hughes are specialists in mis-sold defined benefit (final salary) pension plan transfers. Speak to our experts today to find out if you have a claim.

What compensation can I claim following an unsuitable pension transfer?

Broadly speaking, our specialist team of financial mis-selling experts aim to recover the amount of money that you lost by transferring out of your defined benefit or final salary pension scheme.

This can be quite a complex calculation, and it usually involves getting expert evidence with financial projections as to what you would have received had you stayed where you were, rather than what you are getting now following the transfer advice.

The amount of compensation that is recovered depends on the pension scheme that you transferred out of and your particular circumstances. Compensation payments can range from tens of thousands, right up to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

What do you charge to run a pension claim?

At Evans Hughes we are able to run the majority of claims on a No Win - No Fee basis. Contact us and have our experts provide a free no obligation review of your final salary pension transfer.