Pensions advice costs Berkeley Jacobs dear

Rochester, Kent-based BJ has set aside £1m to cover compensation costs, or £200 for each of the 5,000 client cases it has committed to reviewing as part of the regulatory action imposed by the FSA. The action is focused on so-called pension unlocking, which enables people over the age of 50 to release benefits from occupational or personal pensions before reaching retirement age. The regulator says the firm failed to identify client needs and maximised the amounts of cash withdrawn with no regard to the fall in pension income this would lead to. The more cash liberated this way, the m...