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.