Pension money disappeared in the ether - what do do?

[pensiontransfernightmare]

I am having an ongoing pension nightmare. Previously held a personal pension with Virgin Money, smaller employer pension with Scottish Widows. (Am now self-emplyoed). Decided to move both pensions into a single fund with Fidelity in December 2023. Scottish Widows (small 10k) transfer went through in days.

Virgin a much bigger lump of money, almost £100k. Total nightmare, they needed signed discharge forms (fine, get they need to protect me) which I signed and sent back, they acknowledged receipt on 28 January 2024. More delays. Repeated emails, phone calls. Claim they transferred money to Fidelity on 26 April. Fidelity saying they cannot trace it.

So we are now 2 months on, there is almost £100k floating around somewhere that can't be linked to me, and neither institution seem to be that concerned. Have raised a complaint with the ombudsman but what else should I be doing?

Have you complained to them? I expect so. Have you asked for a named contact to deal with your case? Have you quoted TCF legislation? (treating customers fairly), which I suggest this doesn't qualify as achieving. I would push for a named contact, and escalate on the phone, as you speak to them use the words formal complaint explicitly.

If you've done all of this and no result, then up the food chain.

I would consider contacting Katie Morley of The Daily Telegraph.

Below is from the internet.

[email protected]. Make sure you include as much detail about your case as possible, as well as copies of any supporting. documents

Yes I have made a formal complaint to Virgin about the slowness of the transfer, they apologised and sent me £100 as a goodwill gesture. I have opened a case with the financial ombudsman, I just want it resolved and for someone to take it seriously. £100k missing since 26 April and nobody seems particularly concerned.

Not keen on going to the press but it might come to that. DH suggests "Grace on the Case" from This is Money but she doesn't seem to be active any longer. Will give it a couple more days of calling every day although I really hate to, pull the "let me speak to your manager" card.

Oh you absolutely must demand to dowak to the manager. Sorry from anything wise the frontline people won't be able to fix it- it's not their job. They deal either routine stuff. As long as you know you are nir complaining about them personally they will be delighted to pass you on. Next time don't even explain to them. Tell them you are calling about a highly sensitive case, Dealing with 100k, with major legal and media implications, and ask them to escalate to their most senior available manager. They will sigh with relief and pass you to someone who might actually take done responsibility. And you should tell that person that your next step is going to the media.

Sorry terrible typing while on the move.

Absolutely go to the Press. I used to work in a Press Office and deal with customer complaints that have either threatened to go to the Press or have actually by one to the media. Once you do that, more Senior people get involved and it should get sorted. Tony Hetherington is always good.

You need to speak to Fidelity and get a named contact there. They are usually pretty good.

Are you a direct client of Fidelity or is it vía an IFA? Ask how they transferred it. If it was automated they have no excuse not to find it, if they did it vía paper, ask for a copy of the stick transfer form. Ask both companies for copies of their reconciliation process. Also ask them for copies of their complaint procedure and timelines. The money is either with virgin or fidelity. It's not nowhere but they are both blaming each other rather than sort it. Happy to help if you need just dm me.

If it was via an IFA that would be easy. We would create merry hell and with £10'sM invested with these companies, they tend to run around and do something. It's not so easy for the end user.

Try calling FOS as well. You need to complain to Virgin and Fidelity as it's not clear who has mislaid it.

No, I'm a direct client. Virgin have given me the account number and sort code the money was paid into, and the date and the exact amount. Googling tells me that the sort code and a/c number they used is a Fidelity account. The call centre person I spoke to at Virgin could not give me the payment reference used on the BACS transfer but is looking into it.

Fidelity are saying they cannot trace the payment. Irrespective of how many payments they have going in and out of accounts (and I get this isn't like looking at your own personal current account), I don't believe they can't find it with the details I've given.

I will call Fidelity back in the morning and demand an escalation, it really shouldn't be this difficult. It's the general lack of concern about it, no "Oh that's awful Mrs X, I will get straight on that now and can understand your concern" or anything, just "oh we'll look into it".

Only reason we actioned the transfer in the first place was because fidelity were offering a £1000 incentive to do so. Honestly, is it any wonder people stick with the same accounts for ever.

I have just come across an email online for the Head of Personal Investing at Fidelity, who is listed as the person to email if your complaint has not been handled. Emailing him now.

@pensiontransfernightmare I've just had a thought. Are you speaking to the correct Fidelity? Sounds crazy but the 4 areas of their business are run independently. One doesn't really talk to the other. Fundsnetwork is a different company to Fidelity International etc etc

Honestly id try not ti stress. Ive worked in pensions for years and i get it can be frustrating but it will all sort itself out. Just make sure you get them to look at any investment losses over the period and make it up to you. Tbh £100k is not a large transfer at all.

I get what you mean but yes I am - they have no problem pulling up my details.

Sorry to hear the problems you are having OP. I think I’d be going to the press at this point, not that you should need to. They do seem to get stuff done that ordinary customers cannot, unfortunately.

Sent an email last night at 8.30pm and have had a response this morning at 8.05am from a named individual in their investigations team so fingers crossed I get a resolution to this soon.

I know in the terms of the sums Fidelity is dealing with that £100k is not a lot of money when you're moving millions about every day. But this is a lot of money to me and is pretty much my entire pension fund.

That’s good, it’ll get resolved 👍🏻

So they essentially offered you a 1% cashback to move your assets. Being out of the market could cost you substantially more. Of course it also works the other way around but pension providers shouldn’t be offering cash incentives to people to move their money. That could create very bad outcomes.

It's Crane on the Case (Helen Crane) I think. If that helps!

Had a call back from them yesterday, they said that they had traced the payment of my funds into their account from Virgin, but that it had been applied to the wrong client's account as Virgin had supplied the incorrect reference. 🙄😡

They appear to be on the case with sorting it out. I did point out that my money has been invested on someone else's behalf for 2 months and presumably earning interest for someone else, and they said this would be accounted for. Still waiting for it to reflect in my account in the app.

Whole thing has been so much more complex and hassle than it should be, in a era where we have the current account switch guarantee and similar. The £1k incentive was a bonus, we had other money (ISAs) with Fidelity which we were happy with, found them easy to use, the app works well. Virgin on the other hand had a dreadful website and you couldn't get them on the phone at all, so we were wanting to move away from them and consolidating seemed wise.

I opened a case with the Financial Ombudsman about the issues I had with Virgin and I don't think their internal complaints resolution cuts it.

Glad they’ve got it. Def complain as someone needs to compensate you for lost gains (it’s not interest as such). They can calculate it, but who pays the bill I would suggest is their problem. Virgin would seem to be at fault although finger pointing does happen.

Agree, I don't think Fidelity are blame-free either. I will let the Ombudsman decide what they are going to do.

I would expect them to pay you an amount for the growth you would have had if you had been invested.