Mis sold pension or just naive?

[Drawweight]

I started off a couple of private pensions with the co-op way back in the mid 80's.

Around about 2001 I was approached to have a 'review of my finances' by a financial advisor who looked over these pensions.

He said because they had had no bonuses that year I would be better of closing them and he could sell me a better pension plan.

This I've been paying into up till the present.

I'm due to collect on all my pensions next June and went to the CIB where they give a free consultation( coincidentally by a retired IFA who I knew) and he said because the pensions I gave up had a guaranteed rate/pay-out I should never have given them up.

Obviously that's my fault as I should have checked but was I miss sold the new product or is the miss selling only applicable to the product sold and not the product given up?

I'm ready for the 'take responsibility for you own actions' replies and if there was no miss selling done then that's fair enough i'm big enough to take it :-)

[Helicopter123]

Drawweight said:

I started off a couple of private pensions with the co-op way back in the mid 80's.

Around about 2001 I was approached to have a 'review of my finances' by a financial advisor who looked over these pensions.

He said because they had had no bonuses that year I would be better of closing them and he could sell me a better pension plan.

This I've been paying into up till the present.

I'm due to collect on all my pensions next June and went to the CIB where they give a free consultation( coincidentally by a retired IFA who I knew) and he said because the pensions I gave up had a guaranteed rate/pay-out I should never have given them up.

Obviously that's my fault as I should have checked but was I miss sold the new product or is the miss selling only applicable to the product sold and not the product given up?

I'm ready for the 'take responsibility for you own actions' replies and if there was no miss selling done then that's fair enough i'm big enough to take it :-)

It is advice that is regulated in the UK, with no long stop. Get your paperwork together and complain to the original IFA.

[Drawweight]

When I say 'Financial Advisor' I'm perhaps being generous.

More like a pension salesman who I have no way to contact.

[Helicopter123]

Drawweight said:

When I say 'Financial Advisor' I'm perhaps being generous.

More like a pension salesman who I have no way to contact.

Can you recall who he worked for? Have you any paperwork?

[Stevie_P]

I have an old Coop pension from the '80s and when I went o an IFA about consolidation she said I may want to think about keeping this one as it has a guaranteed annuity (I think it may be 9% or something).
Given what annuities are giving these days (Sh*te all) I decided to keep it.
Though, to be fair, there's not much in there but still....

Steve

[Pro Bono]

Drawweight said:

He said because they had had no bonuses that year I would be better of closing them and he could sell me a better pension plan.

This I've been paying into up till the present.

You don't need to identify the person who sold you the pension. Your pension company will have the relevant details, as they will have paid him the commission that persuaded him to screw you over.

If you were advised to surrender a pension with a guaranteed annuity it's a slam dunk case of mis-selling. Such policies are like gold dust these days.

However, you do need some advice in order to assess whether you were actually sold a bad deal, so I'd recommend you contact the Pensions Advisory Service - https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/ They're independent and their advice is free.

The initial complaint should be made to your current pension provider.

It wasn't remotely your fault for not checking the terms. No normal person has the slightest understanding of the complexities of pensions, let alone things like guaranteed annuity rates. This is why you need professional advice when taking out a pension. It's just a tragedy that such vitally important and life-changing advice is given by people who have a vested interest in selling you something, and to whom ethics is a county in south east England.