Adviser compensates insistent client after FOS deems DB transfer unsuitable

Pension transfer turns sour

clock • 4 min read

Fernleigh Wearden & Company has been told to compensate a client by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) after it carried out a pension transfer for an insistent client who later complained the switch was not in her best interests.

Mrs N, as referred to by the FOS, complained that Fernleigh provided unsuitable advice to transfer her deferred occupational pension scheme (OPS) benefits to a personal pension plan, causing her to lose valuable guaranteed benefits. In early 2014, Mrs N sought advice from Fernleigh Wearden about transferring deferred OPS benefits to a personal pension, which had a quoted transfer value of £154,000. In 2009, the client had previously tried to transfer the OPS with a different adviser when it had a value of £92,000. Fernleigh Wearden recommended that Mrs N transfer for deferred OPS bene...

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