True Potential has made the headlines following publicised decisions by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in which the FCA-regulated firm was found to have provided unsuitable advice to its clients about their pensions and investments. FOS investigates disputes between financial institutions and their clients.
Several of the FOS decisions in question relate to what True Potential calls ‘non-advised sales’, but which its clients have taken as ‘advice’. In these cases, the client often:
In these cases, True Potential argues that the transfers were ‘non-advised’, namely, they did not constitute financial advice, and therefore it is not responsible for the new funds’ poor performance.
However, FOS decisions suggest that an adviser’s conduct may amount to regulated advice where the adviser goes beyond simply sending or explaining a Direct Marketing Offer. Some advisers’ actions included:
A Direct Marketing Offer on its own is not usually treated as advice. The issue is whether the adviser later went beyond passing on information and, in fact, recommended or arranged the transfer.
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Working on a ‘no win – no fee’ basis, TLW Solicitors’ experienced financial mis-selling lawyers can help you through the compensation claims process, whether this is settled in the early stages directly with True Potential Wealth Management or through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
TLW Solicitors’ financial mis-selling team has extensive experience of handling financial mis-selling claims, even when an initial claim has been knocked back. We will ensure that the correct claims information is submitted, your case is swiftly progressed and that you receive the refund or compensation that you are rightfully owed.
A Direct Marketing Offer is a product offer sent directly to the client. On its own, that will not usually amount to regulated advice, but FOS has said the position can change where an adviser goes on to recommend the switch, answers questions about how it should be set up, or helps arrange the transfer.
The review followed concerns about historic transfers into True Potential products, including questions about whether some clients had in fact received regulated advice in cases the firm described as ‘non-advised’. A section 166 review allows City watchdog, the FCA to require an independent expert to investigate issues at an authorised firm.
True Potential set aside around £100 million for potential redress linked to historic client transfers and suitability concerns. Later reporting highlighted that the wider exceptional costs associated with the review and redress were much higher, contributing to a reported £243.3 million operating loss for 2024.
It has been reported that some advisers could receive payments of up to 8% of assets transferred into True Potential products. That does not by itself prove a claim, but it may be relevant when looking at whether a recommendation was genuinely in the client’s best interests.
No. Not every complaint against True Potential has succeeded. Some FOS decisions have found that advice was given and that a transfer was unsuitable, while others have concluded that the client was given information only, or that the complaint should not be upheld on the facts of the particular case.
We are not aware of any reported True Potential case in which a client recovered the commission alone, while the transfer itself was otherwise suitable. However, commission may still be relevant evidence of a potential conflict of interest and may support a wider complaint about whether the recommendation was truly in your best interests.
Following the introduction of pension freedoms in 2015, pension holders were able to access the funds in their Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (DBPS), Company Pensions, and Final Salary Pension Schemes.
With these valuable schemes, the employee was generally guaranteed a pension that was either the average of their earnings over their career or a predetermined percentage of their wages from the years before retirement. The ratio would usually be based on the length of employment with the employer and often included significant death benefits.
For many people who worked in public sector roles, such as in Local Authorities, Teaching, the NHS, Armed Forces or the Civil Service, or large corporates or publicly owned businesses such as British Steel, British Coal, British Telecom or Jaguar Land Rover, these new pension access freedoms led to them being persuaded to move their retirement savings into a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). Whilst SIPPs appeared to be an attractive alternative, they could ultimately come with the risk of high management fees, low returns, and unstable investments that may become insolvent.
The FCA’s starting point is that a transfer out of a defined benefit pension scheme is unlikely to be suitable unless it can clearly be shown to be in the client’s best interests.
If you were given poor financial advice by True Potential Wealth Management and have been left with less than you were expecting in your retirement, TLW Solicitors can help you investigate whether you have the basis of a claim.
Our specialist team of financial mis-selling lawyers can get an up-to-date valuation of the pension that you would have had, which often shows just how much money has been lost.
Get in touch for a confidential and no obligation discussion about your possible claim and to explore your options.
If you are, or were, a True Potential client and transferred your pension or investments after speaking to your adviser, you may have grounds to claim compensation.
Get in touch with TLW Solicitors for a no-obligation and confidential conversation about your possible True Potential Wealth Management refund claim. You can call us on 0191 293 1500, email us at info@tlwsolicitors.co.uk, or complete one of the forms below.
Time limits can apply, so anyone wishing to bring a claim should do so without delay.
Meet Sarah, who heads up our experienced Professional Negligence Claims team.
Sarah and her colleagues are on hand to help with your claim.
