Mis-Sold Annuities
Sadly financial advice is not always driven by getting the best deal for the customer but the best deal for the financial advisor and this has been proven to be the case with Pension annuities, a report by the FSA has revealed.
Pension providers are under an obligation to inform customers that they could find a better annuity rate if they shopped around however in 40% of cases the information was not evident (or as evident as it should have been) in correspondence sent to customers of pension providers.
As quoted in the Daily Telegraph ‘a 65-year-old male who saved £50,000 with Axa and took his pension from Axa would get £2,838 a year. By shopping around, the same pension fund would have bought an income of £3,348 from Aviva, the best deal on the market at the time of going to press – an increase of 18pc.
There are two routes those who feel their annuity is not as good as it could have been – either approach the Financial Ombudsmen to complain directly or use a claim firm which will handle the matter on your behalf.
Lawyer Pronto can put you in touch with such a firm – these companies do take a percentage of any win but they also take the headache out of the claim. Use our contact form if you’d like our guidance.
