Mis-sold Pensions

Types of mis-sold pension claim

If you bought or transferred one of the following types of pensions schemes, and feel you weren’t given all the information you needed to make an informed decision, we’d like to hear from you:

• You transferred a Final Salary pension (also know as a defined pension)
• You transferred to a SIPP, SSAS or QROP pension
• You bought a standard annuity

You can find more information about each type of pension below. You can also get in touch with the Spencer Churchill Claims Advice team today for a FREE assessment.

Mis-sold SIPP Pension Claim

A Self Invested Personal Pensions, also known as SIPPs, is a type of personal pension that lets you hold investments until you retire.

Unlike standard personal pensions, SIPPs let you can choose from a number of investments, including things like insurance company funds, traded endowment policies and commercial property.

If one of the following applies to you, you may have been mis-sold:

• Advised you to transfer to a SIPP because it was better than other pension options
• Advised you to transfer to a SIPP but didn’t provide advice on the investments inside it
• Reviewed your existing pensions and only discussed moving them to a SIPP
• Did not adequately explain the risks of the pension move and/or investments
• Broke any other FCA rules or gave unclear advice

Find out more about mis-sold SIPP pension claims here.

Mis-sold Final Salary Pension Claims

Final Salary Pensions, or defined pensions, are considered to be some of the most secure around. This is because they give you a guaranteed income for life and can protect your family with valuable long-term benefits.

So, if you’ve been told to transfer your pension, you may have been given negligent pension advice. And if you’ve knowingly lost money through transferring due to your new pension investments, it may be an even bigger cause for concern.

You may have been mis-sold a Final Salary Pension if you:

• Were advised to transfer your pension
• Were told you’d be better off transferring

If the above applies to you or if you have any other concerns about your Final Salary Pension, you can take our free initial assessment. One of our experienced case managers will see if you can make a claim and what options you have.

Mis-sold Annuities Claims

With Annuity policy, you’re essentially buying an income for your life in retirement. Indeed, for a lump sum – or the cost of your pension pot – the annuity gives you a permanent income, in monthly or yearly instalments.

To calculate how much you’ll receive each year, the financial provider will look at things like your health, age and lifestyle to determine when you may die.

For some people, these types of pensions are perfectly fine – so long as the financial adviser has done their due diligence, and matched them with the best plan to suit their individual needs. Sadly, this is not always the case.

With that in mind, you may have been mis-sold annuity if:

• You weren’t given all the annuity options
• You wrongly received a standard annuity rate
• Face hidden charges
• Annuity stops paying when you die

Find out more about mis-sold annuities claims here.

Mis-sold SERPS Pension Claims

A State Earning Related Pension Scheme (SERPS), was a government scheme created to give workers more in retirement than their state pension alone.
The amount you’d get via a SERPS pension would depend on how much you’d earned throughout your working life.

If you paid Class One National Insurance contributions you might have had a SERPS pension. You can find out if you have a SERPs pension by logging in to your Personal Tax Account with HMRC.

Unfortunately, some people received the wrong advice, particularly if they were told to “contract-out” of a SERP pension by financial advisors. Contract out means people completely or partially gave up their SERPS pension benefits in exchange for a private pension.

You may be able to claim for SERPS compensation if you:

• Are over 45 years old (males) or 40 years old (females) when you contracted out
• Were advised to contract out by a financial adviser between the dates of 1st July 1988 and 5th April 1997
• Were earning over £10k per year, every year

Find out more about mis-sold SERPS pension claims here.

SSAS Pension Claims

SSAS (Small Self Administered Schemes) pensions are aimed at directors of smaller companies who want more control over their pensions.

For some, SSAS pensions are beneficial because they are flexible and gives the employer control over how the money is invested.

However, SSAS pensions have been used to invest in high-risk and unregulated ventures, and pension holders may have been unaware of the details of the investment.
You may be able to make a SSAS pension claim if:

• You were encouraged to transfer to a SSAS by a financial advisor
• The risks of transferring to a SSAS pension weren’t made clear to you

Can I still claim for a mis-sold pension from years ago?

Yes you can. We believe every potential claim is worth looking into – it could change somebody’s life!

There are some limits to how far back we can go though. The team at Spencer Churchill Claims Advice are unable to look into pension transfers that happened before 1994.

Even if the company that provided you with negligent advice has gone bust since selling your pension, and therefore unable to pay compensation, it’s still worth exploring options as you may still be able to get compensation through other means, such as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

So if you think you have a legitimate claim, even if it’s from years ago, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us today for a free initial assessment to see how we can help you with your mis-sold pension claim.