Even if you don’t have a pension, sharing this list with friends and family could be the thing that saves them from losing their retirement fund to a mis-sold pension or scam.
This is a huge one. We have experience dealing mis-sold pension claims, and almost all of them involve transferring their pensions after a cold-call. Marketing companies can get paid a small fortune for getting somebody to transfer their pension, sometimes as high as 15% of what the pension is worth! Its meant that tens of thousands of calls have been made to people, usually over the age of 45 in the last 10 years.
While not all pension reviews are scams, some certainly end up that way. Again, these marketing companies are often unqualified when it comes to financial advice, and aren’t regulated by the watchdog either. Gung-ho sales-staff may not stress the risk involved in transferring, and it can cause mayhem with people’s pensions.
Although there are plenty of high-risk investments in the UK (think storage pod schemes, land banks and some property funds), a huge amount of mis-sold pensions involve investing overseas. Think forestry schemes, hotels and villas in the likes of the Caribbean or Cape Verde, or farm land and green energy initiatives. These investments are always high-risk, FCA unregulated stuff that could zero your pension balance if they go wrong.
While none of these types of pensions are a scam in themselves, they are the favourite types of pensions for scammers (or at least unqualified marketing companies) to transfer people’s pensions too, as they allow greater control of the types of investments – including those high-risk ones we talked about.
Final salary pensions are very rare these days, as they are expensive for employers to run, but they also have benefits that can’t be replaced with a personal pension.
Some people get tempted to transfer because of high transfer values, but in the long run, it may have been better to keep them where they are, as its usually much, much safer.
If the person who is looking to transfer your pension is playing down the benefits of a final salary pension, it could be an alarm bell.
If any of these warning signs spark your memory, you may have been mis-sold and you could be able to make a claim for a mis-sold pension on a No Win – No Fee* basis. Speak to an expert from Spencer Churchill Claims Advice to find out more!
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