For the past years, there have been many complaints from people who have been a victim of mis sold pension. Until now, even though in 2015 the chancellor reassured that the talks about pension mis selling are baseless and unproven following the new reforms. But despite all of this, there are still evidences implying that not enough regulations were place – unable to protect a lot of people who were able to access their pension.
It is indeed very unfortunate, that a great number of people in all of UK were allured to invest a part of their money through self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs), into high risk and in ineligible investments. Investments that have promise them of big returns and that their retirement pot will immensely increase – ensuring them of a comfortable retirement. When the truth is, these investments may actually be worth nothing.
What is Self-Invested Personal Pensions?
SIPPs is a personal pension scheme that first started and were launchedway back in 1990 and have been a huge contribution to the pension saving world.
Approve by the UK government, SIPPs aim to allow people to have control in where their money should be invested; to enable them to know particularly where their pension funds would be invested. Thus, giving them far more power and authority on what will happen to their pension pot.
Needless to say, not everyone would want to easily give a part of the money they earn every month to something they know nothing of – leaving them hoping that when they retire their pension pot will be sufficient enough to shoulder their cost of living.
SIPP’s big selling point is that you can use them as well in investing your money into not so usual investments, such as commercial property.
But in mis sold pension, the problem is really not on SIPPs. The problem comes from those investments which have charmed and allured individuals into making through their pensions. Those high-risk and ineligible investments which maybe provento useless, worthless, and not valuable. But, how will you know if you are a victim of pension mis selling?
How to Know
Knowing if you are a victim of a mis sold pension is important, so you can make a claim as early as possible. And determining it isn’t that hard. If any of the following circumstances apply to you then you may be entitled to a claim:
- You were advised to transfer away from a Final Salary Company Pension.
- Your new pension was not compared to a low-cost stakeholder pension.
- You were advised to transfer to a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP).
- You were placed into a high-risk portfolio.
- You were not given annual reviews, ongoing support and projections.
- You were transferred away from a pension that had a higher tax-free cash limit.
- You were charged ongoing servicing fees.
Always keep on mind, “If you’ve been badly advised and lost money as a result you could be due compensation.”