FAQs – Pensions & SIPP Mis-Selling

As time goes on, the extent of the pension mis-selling scandal becomes increasingly apparent. To help you determine whether you can make a claim, our compensation experts are here to answer your frequently asked questions about pension mis-selling.

Q1.It was a long time ago, I don’t know if I have any paperwork, can you still help?

A. Yes, we can still help. We will need some very basic information from you. We then obtain all of the relevant information from the Pension providers to enable us to make the claim on your behalf.

Q2. How far back can you look into pension transfers?

A. We can look at any pension transfers which took place from 1988 onwards.

Q3. How long does a claim take?

A. This really depends if the business we are claiming against is still trading. If your advisers are still trading then they have to give us a final decision within 8 weeks. Many will choose to defend any claim which means your case may be passed on to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) for an independent review. This can take upto 6 months to get resolved.

Many of the cases we deal with involve advisers or businesses that have stopped trading. In these circumstances we will take your case to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The turnaround for these claims is around 3 to 6 months.

Q4. What are some examples of a mis-sold Pension product?

A. We help customers who have been advised to transfer their pensions into Self Invested Pension Plans (SIPPs).

These usually contain Overseas Property, Land, Storage Units, Carparks, Carbon Credits, Loan Notes, Bio Fuels, Farm land, Forestry, Ecological Energy plus many more.

Q5. How much will I receive in compensation?

A. This all depends on the amount transferred and the circumstances of the transfer including your personal circumstances at the time. We always endeavour to claim any capital losses, plus any lost interest and compensation for the mis-sale.

The average payout we get for our customers from claims to the FSCS is £22,500.

Average calculated between Jan 2017 to date and before deduction of our fees

Q6. The company that advised me to transfer my pension is no longer trading, can you still help?

A. Yes. We specialise in helping in this sort of situation. If your advisers are no longer trading we have the option to take your case to the FSCS – Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

We will need some basic details from you but from thereafter we will take over and begin the process of investigating what happened and how best to get your money back.

Q7. What are your fees?

A. We do not charge any upfront fees. If we are successful in getting you a refund, we’ll send you an invoice for our fee which is calculated on the total amount you get back.

Please note: If you cancel after 14 days and we have already submitted your claim, and an offer of compensation is subsequently made, we will charge our full fee.

For example:

Redress band	Redress Amount	Max % Fee (Inc VAT)	Max Total Fee (Inc VAT)
	Lower Upper
1	£1 £1,499	36%	£504
2	£1,500 £9,999	33.6%	£3,000
3	£10,000 £24,999	30%	£6,000
4	£25,000 £49,999	25%	£9,000
5	£50,000 NA	18%	£12,000

The above fee illustration is not to be taken as an estimate of the amount likely to be recovered for you.