Financial Advisers told to do more to report potential pension scams

It’s now one week since the long-awaiting ban on pension cold-calling came in to effect, and this week The Pensions Regulator has told financial advisers to do more to report potential pension scams so authorities can take action earlier.

Over the past 15 years, many people with valuable final salary pensions have been bombarded by marketing companies, often through cold-calls, persuading them to transfer their pensions.

But in many cases, people did not realise the valuable benefits they were giving up, or the risk they were exposing their retirement fund to by making the move.

Financial advisers should know all of this, and act in their client’s best interests to advise against the transfer when it is clearly unsuitable.

But instead, many transfers went ahead, earning some advisers a fortune before they got caught by the regulator, and some turned out to be outright scams.

Report scam pensions

As of Jan 9, people can tell those making cold-calls about pensions that what they are doing is illegal with confidence.

But will the ban really stop determined scammers? To help further guard against scam pension transfers going ahead, The Pensions Regulator has told advisers to keep their eyes and ears open, and to report potential scams when they spot them.

If you’ve already transferred

If you were one of those persuaded by high-pressure sales tactics to transfer your pension from a cold-call, you may have been mis-sold or scammed.

Get some answers with a FREE initial assessment with Spencer Churchill Claims Advice – we’re specialists in pension mis-selling claims, and we’ve recovered £millions for our clients.