Nicholas Hill & Gus Baker report on pensions mis-selling, chicken & chips, ‘dubious advisers’, & a new wave of litigation
- New legislation has changed the ability of people to access their pensions.
- The evidence suggests that a major mis-selling scandal is erupting.
- This note considers the legal landscape as pensions and financial services litigation intersect.
Between 2015 and 2017 it is estimated that 220,000 Defined Benefit (DB) pension scheme members transferred over £50bn out of DB schemes. Many of those transfers will have been on the basis of expert, regulated financial advice. Regrettably some scheme members were (according to the Work and Pensions Select Committee) ‘exploited for cynical personal gain by dubious financial advisers in tandem with parasitical so-called “introducers”’.
Practices reported in respect of transfers out of the British Steel Pension Scheme included invitations to ‘curry and chips’ or ‘chicken and chips’ events. One firm was moved to write to the Work and Pensions Select Committee to correct the Committee’s understanding about meetings it held—the firm noted that its budget had not extended to ‘chicken and chips’
