What is a final salary pension transfer?
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A final salary pension transfer is when somebody transfers a final salary pension away from their
defined benefit scheme, to a personal pension. In most cases, this means leaving often valuable
pension benefits behind.
Many people are mis-sold their final salary pension transfer, having been given negligent financial advice.
These people may have already lost money by transferring, and may lose more.
Spencer Churchill Claims Advice have experience in mis-sold final salary pension transfer claims, and operate on a no upfront costs basis
Please note: No Win – No Fee*: Successful claims made through Spencer Churchill Claims Advice are subject to the Success Fee, charged as per your terms of business and engagement letter of any monies awarded to the claim. Clients have a 14 day “Cooling-Off” period during which time they may cancel at any time without charge. After this time, cancellation will result in the application of the Cancellation Fee.
*Figures calculated before deduction of Success Fee and taxes
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Can you claim for a final salary pension transfer
How does a final salary pension work?
If you have or had a Final Salary Pension, its good to understand how they work.
Having a final salary pension usually means you worked for a large company, or something government ran such as the council or NHS.
Whoever your employer is or was, they would have operated the final salary pension scheme on your behalf.
In many cases, both the employer and the employee pay into the scheme, but the money is managed by the employer.
When the pension scheme member reaches retirement age, they will be offered a guaranteed income in retirement.
How much they get depends on 3 things:
- How long they were members of the scheme (usually how long they worked for the company or organisation)
- How much their salary was in their final year of work for the company
- The accrual rate.
Years of Service x accrual rate x final salary = Yearly income
Final salary pensions are usually:
- Free for scheme members (no annual administration charges)
- Considered to be low-risk sources of guaranteed income in retirement
And may come with the following benefits:
- Death-in-service benefits: paying out money to a spouse or dependents if death occurs
before pensionable age - Full pension available if early retirement is taken due to ill health
- Reduced pension for early retirement (after age 55).
They are considered valuable and ‘gold-plated’, but despite the guaranteed income they promise, many people are advised to transfer them and are often mis-sold their pension.
Should i transfer my final salary pension?
Whether it’s a good idea to transfer your final salary pension or not is a question that you are always best asking a qualified, regulated and unbiased financial adviser.
Pensions are complex topics, and the answer depends on many important aspects of your current and future circumstances.
That’s why it is often a legal requirement to receive regulated financial advice when considering a final salary pension transfer.
Sadly, this doesn’t stop many people receiving negligent financial advice over their pension transfer.
In fact, a 2018 study by the FCA showed that less than 50% of the pension transfers they reviewed involved suitable advice.
Transferring a final salary pension often means losing valuable benefits, including a guaranteed income in retirement.
Often, destination pension schemes involve much more risk, and may even be scams.
The claims process
Many people are mis-sold their Final Salary Pension Transfers, often without realising.
Our pension claims process has resulted in compensation being recovered.
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Free initial assessment
Take a free chat with one of our claim assessors to see if you are eligible to claim.
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Sign a little paperwork
Signing an LOA with Spencer Churchill Claims Advice allows us to collect the necessary information on your behalf.
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We get to work
While you get on with your life, we’ll be investigating and building your claim.
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Claim results
If your claim is accepted, we’ll organise getting the compensation* paid to you.
Related Claims
Are you able to claim compensation for a mis-sold pension? Check out these related claims:
FAQs about final salary pensions and transfers
What Is A Final Salary Pension Lump Sum
Within a final salary pension scheme, it may be possible to access a lump sum of tax free cash once you reach a certain age (usually 55).
Lump sums at 55 are often available from both final salary pensions and other personal pensions, and usually have a tax-free limit of up to 25% of the total value, however it may depend on other circumstances too.
Some people are advised to transfer their pension away from final salary pension schemes to get better access to a lump-sum. However, this is seldom a good enough reason on it’s own to transfer, and may be part of a scam.
Should I Transfer My Final Salary Pension To A SIPP?
It is always important to get the advice of a regulated financial adviser when considered a final salary pension transfer, regardless of where the pension might be transferred too.
SIPPs allow a greater range of control over what the pension is invested in, but this can include high-risk and non-FCA regulated investments that may be unsuitable for you, or may even be scams.
Many transfers from final salary pensions into SIPPs lose money instead of gaining it, and may have been mis-sold.
Should I Cash In My Final Salary Pension?
Final salary pensions are considered to be both rare and valuable, offering a guaranteed income in retirement.
When people talk about “cashing in” their pension, they may mean transferring it to another personal pension (swapping the guaranteed income for a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value – CETV), or they might mean coming out of the pensions altogether and realising the cash.
If you are considering “cashing in” your final salary pension, you should consult with a regulated financial adviser, ensuring they are FCA authorised by using the Financial Conduct Authority register, as cashing in can sometimes produce big tax bills or may be a pensions liberation scam.
If you’ve already transferred, you may be eligible to make a mis-sold pension claim.
Final Salary Pension And Early Retirement
Some people are advised to transfer their final salary pension for early retirement. This may be considered suitable in some fairly rare circumstances, but may not be needed.
Many final salary schemes may allow early retirement at the trustee’s discretion, or in the event of ill health and/or a shortened life expectancy.
If you transferred your pension for this reason alone, you may have been mis-sold.
Final Salary Pension Advice
Getting final salary pension advice needn’t be a minefield. By seeking out a regulated financial advice, the advice they give must follow the FCA’s rules and guidelines.
If not, then it may be you can hold the financial adviser accountable by making a mis-sold pension claim.
What Are The Benefits Of Transferring A Final Salary Pension?
Transfer advice should be very bespoke to each person, and so what an individual stands to lose or benefit from a final salary pension transfer changes.
However, many defined benefit transfers may be sold to scheme members on some of these potential benefits:
- Greater investment choice
- Opportunity to grow pension faster (however this entails more risk)
- Greater flexibility
- High transfer values (many schemes offer a high CETV)
- Changes to death benefits (it may be beneficial for some people who wish to select other beneficiaries to receive their pension if they should die before retirement).
But there is a huge flip-side to these benefits:
What Are The Risks Of Transferring A Final Salary Pension?
Transferring a final salary pension usually means giving up a guaranteed income in retirement, one that is often index-linked and increases the longer the scheme member works for the company and the bigger the salary when they retire.
Generous death benefits are sometimes lost too, where a spouse may receive a large portion of the pension in the event of death before retirement.
Often called ‘Gold-Plated’ pensions, they are considered a safer and more solid foundation for retirement.
But by transferring out, many people end up investing the money through their pension back into the stock-market, which as we all know, can go wrong and regularly does!
Investments can decrease in value as well as increase, and they don’t always grow inline with the critical yield, meaning that even if the pension looks like it was growing, it may never be worth as much as the final salary pension.
Sadly, it is not unheard of for people to lose their entire pension funds by transferring and investing in stocks that later collapse or get into trouble .
Many people were mis-sold their final salary pension transfers, and you may be able to make a claim if you transferred yours!
Do you know how people complained about mis-sold investments and pensions in the last year?
A lot. Over twenty thousand complaints were made about mis-sold pensions and investments in 2020/21, a figure which had doubled since the year before.. It’s no secret how serious this problem is, and it just seems to keep getting worse.
Have you been a victim of financial mis-selling?
Reaching out for help is never easy,
especially if you’ve been misled in the past.
But getting in touch with us won’t commit you to anything. We want to toss you a lifeboat and guide you through the choppy waters of the financial ocean, not leave you struggling to stay afloat. Our experts are here to offer advice and support on financial claims. We know what we’re doing and you can trust that if you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers.
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Spencer Churchill Claims Advice will:
- Speak to you in plain English
- Provide you with a dedicated claims specialist
- Pay attention to the small details of your case
- Keep you up to date with the status of your claim
- Make sure you understand our charges
- Do absolutely everything we can to win your claim
How does our claims process work?
With millions of mis-sold pensions reported, it’s worth finding out if you can get your money back. Here’s how our simple process works:
What types of claims do we handle?
Find out how much you could claim today
Ready to take the next step? We’re here with clear, no-pressure advice. Give us a call today to find out if you have a valid claim
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