Strategy
UK-Based Congruent Launches Service For Victims Of Mis-Sold Pension, Investment Products

London-based actuarial firm Congruent Financial Partners has launched a new service for individuals looking to recover losses from pension and investment products mis-sold by IFAs or financial institutions.
London-based actuarial firm Congruent Financial Partners
has launched a new service for individuals looking to recover
losses from pension and investment products mis-sold by
independent financial advsors or institutions.
The new service will support individuals that have been mis-sold
pensions and investment products and provide a valuation of
redress if inappropriate advice has been given, it said in a
statement.
The total economic cost of mis-sold pensions and investment
products is unknown, with cases going back to the sector’s
deregulation in 1988. In July, the head of supervision of the
Financial Conduct Authority wrote that failings at operators of
self-invested pension products put “UK consumers’ pension savings
at considerable risk, particularly from scams and pension
fraud”.
The FCA found mis-selling by IFAs in a third of cases of enhanced
transfer values being used for employer pensions moving from
direct benefit to direct contribution schemes and has said it
will instruct some IFAs to offer redress to impacted
individuals.
That such a service is being offered highlights how, as banks
continue to count the cost to their profits of sagas such as
mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI), dealing with
disgruntled clients is an industry in itself.
Congruent confirmed that it will take on a range of cases,
including those relating to deferred pension products, opt-outs
from the state earnings related pension scheme, drawdowns or
personal pensions where individuals had the opportunity to take a
defined benefit product.
“Thousands of people have taken out pensions or invested their
life savings and ended up with much less than expected. Often
they can’t understand why this has happened, or they just accept
that it’s the result of the entrepreneurial risk that they took,”
said Roger Grenville Jones, principal at Congruent Financial
Partners.
“But if it’s true that an individual was incorrectly advised,
tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds can be recovered
through the regulated complaints procedures, or by going to the
Financial Ombudsman. This is certainly the least expensive
option, and can be much more effective than going to court,” said
Jones.