Partner still defending adviser after costly pension transfer concerns

[AmstelStar]

My partner has been with the same financial adviser for around 25 years – he's not exactly a friend (I mean they don't socialise), but through many years of meetings, he's become a friendly, familiar face and a trusted adviser.

Just recently, we started looking back at my partner's pension transfer history and it turns out this adviser has been systematically moving his savings onto his company platform, charging extortionate fees and manipulating key details on suitability reports (like my partner's projected retirement age - literally adding years to it to make the data on his investment return tables pass compliance filters). Through this scheming, my partner has given up very valuable benefits, including a precious defined-benefit pension (which was deemed suitable when the data absolutely screamed unsuitable).

We are now preparing to make a formal complaint and look for compensation but I have to admit I'm horrified at how my partner has allowed this to happen – how could he have not looked at the figures more closely? He has literally lost thousands through blindly trusting this man.

The evidence is there in black and white but he's being quite passive about everything, continuing to make excuses for him. It's almost like he's caught in an abusive relationship, unable to accept what is glaringly obvious from the outside.

I guess it’s as you said - your partner blindly trusted him so didn’t check. And 25 years is a very long time to work with someone. I’d also expect him to annoyed too, not making excuses.

Does the advisor know you know what has happened and are making a complaint. I’m no financial expert but having a DB pension myself I have heard how difficult they are to transfer and my understanding was not all financial advisors can sign off on it. I would be gutted to have lost mine.

I hope you have success with your complaint and get compensation

He doesn’t know we’ll be complaining. He’s falsified reports over a long period and probably thinks we don’t have a clue - we have a clear case.

I actually can’t believe how horribly he’s behaved out of pure greed. As you say, a DB pension is very valuable - the adviser was not qualified to facilitate it but someone who was stamped the documents (knowing nothing about the circumstances).

It all sounds very odd. The fact you have suitability letters might make it difficult for you to prove he wasn’t in an informed position. Make your complaint as detailed as possible. If they work for a large organisation or network it will hopefully be investigated properly - but it’s not usually a fast process. If adviser looks after more than the pension you should likely be prepared to move elsewhere - the trust is gone on your part at least by the sounds of it.

Your DH probably isn’t the only person he has done this to.

I think we can prove that although my partner was shown some suitability letters, he missed hidden-away falsified details that distorted the returns - for example in one report it gives his correct retirement date on one page but shows a table with a term to age 100 and no withdrawals during that period - ludicrous. My partner skimmed over details like this because he trusted his adviser implicitly and is paying him to manage his finances essentially. I trusted him too, he talks the talk.

And yes, I feel sure he has done this to others too.