Pensions: How to Know You’ve Been Mis-Sold
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The first major mis-sold pensions scandal took place in the late 1980s, and it continues to affect people to this day. Now we could be on the verge of another scandal of the same scope.
Over the years, millions of people have been advised to take out a personal pension plan when their existing company scheme would have offered a better pension pay-out. In fact, according to one recent study, a quarter of retirees who chose a private pension received lower incomes than they were entitled to.
If you think you’ve been mis-sold a pension plan, then you’re in a good position to make a claim. How can you tell if you were mis-sold a pension? Here are a few tell-tale signs.
How to Tell if You’ve Been Mis-Sold a Pension
You weren’t asked about your personal circumstances
A reputable pension provider should always ask a range of questions about your current situation. A wide range of variables could play into the choice of the most suitable pension plan for your circumstances. If the advisor failed to ask many questions about you, your history, your current situation and your future plans, then you could have been mis-sold your pension plan, and could be entitled to compensation.
You weren’t given the full range of options
Financial regulations mean that pension providers are obligated to recommend a full range of options to you based on your personal circumstances. If you discover that your financial advisor failed to inform you about a variety of suitable pension products, then you may be in a position to make a claim.
You were advised to transfer your pension without there being any benefit to you
It’s a financial advisor’s responsibility to inform you of the best deals, and to offer advice about which plan is best suited to your specific requirements. If you felt your advisor recommended a pension transfer that didn’t seem to give you any benefit, this could be a sign that your advisor wasn’t acting in accordance with regulations.
Your pension plan contained misleading messages
Your pension pack probably contained a wealth of information about your new pension plan, but in some cases, this information has been found to be misleading. For example, a supplier may have included ambiguous case studies or examples, which made customers believe they’d receive a certain level of pay-out when this wasn’t the case.
You were pressured into accepting the pension plan
Although this is harder to prove, if you feel that you were pressured into choosing a pension plan that you weren’t 100% happy with, you may have grounds to seek compensation, particularly if you weren’t offered any other viable options.
Can You Make a Claim?
If your financial advisor failed to ask the right questions about your health, and you can prove any existing conditions with official medical records, then you’re in a strong position to make a claim. Likewise, if they didn’t recommend shopping around for a good deal, this is also cause for complaint. If you’re not sure whether you were mis-sold a pension or not, it’s worthwhile speaking to a specialist in the field, who will be able to advise you further.
