Final salary or defined benefit is a specified (i.e. guaranteed) amount of benefit, such as “1/60 of your pay upon retirement for each year of service,” is provided by defined benefit pension plans. In such an arrangement, the employee was often guaranteed a pension that was either an average of their earnings during their career or a predetermined percentage of their wage during the years before retirement. The ratio would be based on the length of employment with the employer. Increases after retirement are often somewhat discretionary but must adhere to legislative minimums.
Sometimes financial advisers can advocate transferring out of the final salary pension scheme offered to you by a workplace. Pension transfers are a big decision and transferring out of a final salary scheme is rarely good advice. However, many people were advised to do that due to negligent financial advice.
If you were given bad financial advice to transfer your pension, chances are you were deceived about the benefits. Don’t wait too long to seek compensation if you want to recover your money. Get expert help now and don’t risk losing out on your retirement savings.
TLW Solicitors are financial mis-selling experts and specialise in helping clients claim compensation when they have been given negligent financial advice to transfer their pensions.
Start your pension transfer claim online today, request a callback or call TLW Solicitors on 0800 169 5925.
Defined benefit pensions, also known as final salary schemes, are a game-changer for retirement planning. Instead of slowly accumulating savings over time, these pensions guarantee you a fixed income for life based on your terminal earnings or average salary. Whether it’s a lump-sum payment or regular installments, the benefits are generous and even extend to death benefits.
As defined benefit pension or final salary schemes are usually a very solid and dependable source of income for retirement, there must be an extremely good reason for someone to want to transfer this into a riskier type of investment.
Getting the right financial advice is absolutely crucial. The government watchdog, Financial Conduct Authority, has set up strict guidelines to prevent pension transfer mis-selling. If you feel like you didn’t receive proper pension advice, contact us now and let’s explore your options together.
People who worked in the public sector or nationalised industries, such as those listed below, may have been a member of a defined benefit/final salary employer pension scheme:
In June 2020, Government backed financial industry watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced measures to tackle the issues in the defined benefit pension transfer market. Pension freedoms introduced by the Government in 2015 have already been implicated as a source of consumer harm by the FCA.
Defined benefit pension mis-selling can unknowingly occur due to poor financial advice leaving you with less than you were expecting in your retirement. TLW Solicitors specialise in helping clients who have been given negligent final salary pension advice.
Even if your spouse transferred their pension years ago or the financial adviser is no longer in business, you can still seek compensation.
Until our specialist team of financial mis-selling lawyers get an up-to-date valuation of the pension that our clients would have had, clients often do not realise how much they have lost out, which can be a significant amount. TLW Solicitors are specialists in mis-sold defined benefit (final salary) pension plan transfers. Speak to us today to find out if you have a claim.
Defined benefit or final salary pension schemes, also sometimes called a ‘company pension’, are generally very dependable pension schemes that promise to pay somebody a specific amount from their retirement until the end of their life, based on criteria under the scheme.
Defined benefit and final salary pensions are usually very expensive schemes for employers to run, so they are usually limited to large companies, government entities like the NHS, emergency services, the armed forces, local authorities, or former nationalised industries such as coal mining, shipbuilding, steelworks and rail.
If you or a loved one have been advised to transfer out of a defined benefit or final salary pension scheme and feel you have lost out financially, then contact us at TLW Solicitors.
One of our team will be happy to discuss your case on a no-obligation basis to see if the advice you were given to transfer out was suitable or not. We can then explore the different options for making a compensation claim.
The claims process varies for each case and depends on whether the advising financial professional is still in business. If they are not, the claim goes to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), a government-backed organization that reimburses individuals who have lost money due to a failed financial firm.
The process is faster without someone to argue against or dispute the allegations. In high-value cases, advisers may argue that their advice was suitable. If this happens, we can refer the claim to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) or start court proceedings to resolve it.
If your claim succeeds, the compensation amount varies. Our team of expert financial mis-selling lawyers strives to recover the exact sum you lost when you transferred out of your defined benefit or final salary pension scheme.
Calculating your potential losses can be intricate. It requires expert analysis of financial projections comparing what you could have gained if you had stayed put versus what you are currently receiving after following the transfer advice.
The compensation you receive depends on your previous pension scheme and individual circumstances. We have successfully recovered tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of pounds, in compensation for our clients.
If we determine that the advice you received to transfer was inappropriate, in most cases we will handle your case on a no-win, no-fee basis.
That means if the case is unsuccessful for any reason, then you will not be charged for the work that we have done.
What really sets us apart is our financial mis-selling team’s experience. We have specialist solicitors who focus on this area and have access to a range of leading industry experts who can help calculate the losses which someone may have suffered because of unsuitable transfer advice.
If you are concerned that you or a loved one were not given the right advice about leaving a final salary/defined benefit pension, please call us on 0800 169 5925 or use our online form and our team will contact you for an initial, no-obligation consultation.
It is important to get advice as soon as possible as strict time limits can apply.
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