FCA punishes 2 over BSPS transfer advice failings

The FCA has banned financial advisers Keith Dickinson and Andrew Allen for British Steel Pension Scheme transfer advice failings and ordered them to pay £155,000 in compensation. The two, both qualified Pension Transfer Specialists, were involved with Mansion Park Limited, a Birmingham-based financial adviser now in liquidation. The FSCS has so far paid out almost £3m in compensation to Mansion Park customers for the unsuitable advice they received, including over £2 million for advice provided by Mr Dickinson. Both men have been banned from advising customers on pension transfers and pension opt-outs. The regulator said that between June 2015 and December 2017, Mr Dickinson provided pension transfer advice which Mr Allen signed off despite it being unsuitable. Mr Dickinson and Mr Allen will pay £70,000 and £85,606, respectively, to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to contribute towards the compensation owed to Mansion Park’s customers. During the Relevant Period (8 June 2015 to 17 December 2017), Mr Dickinson was a qualified Pension Transfer Specialist (PTS) performing the CF30 (Customer) controlled function at Mansion Park. During the same period Mr Allen was also a qualified Pension Transfer Specialist (PTS) and performed the CF1 (Director) and CF30 (Customer) controlled functions at Mansion Park Limited (Mansion Park). Some 400 Mansion Park customers were advised to transfer out of their defined benefits scheme. Mr Dickinson advised 135 of them, including 68 members of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS). In total, those advised by Mr Dickinson had pension benefits worth approximately £36.8 million. The FCA said that Mr Allen demonstrated a lack of competence in his oversight of advice for 328 (82%) of those 400 Mansion Park customers, including 72 who were BSPS members. The watchdog said the customers transferring out of the BSPS were in a "vulnerable position" due to the uncertainty surrounding the future of their pension scheme. It was critical they received sound advice from Mansion Park, the FCA said. In most of the advice Mr Dickinson provided and the files Mr Allen signed off, the advice was unsuitable because it was based on the flawed assumption that transferring would be in their customer’s best interest. The advice provided did not assess whether customers were relying on income from their defined benefit pension scheme in retirement, whether the customer understood the risks of transferring out or whether they could bear those financial risks, the FCA noted. Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “People turned to Mansion Park to give them vital advice so they’d have financial peace of mind in retirement. Both Mr Dickinson and Mr Allen failed to do their job. They put people’s hard earned retirement money at risk and so it is only right that they contribute to the costs of compensating these people. "We will continue to take action where failings by advisers put their customers at risk.” Any customers who were advised to transfer by Mansion Park are asked to contact the FSCS to see if they are owed compensation.

FCA punishes 2 over BSPS transfer advice failings

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