Chair seeks justification for BSPS transfer advice
19 December 2017
The Work and Pensions Committee writes to the two invited witnesses who failed to attend last week's hearing on the British Steel Pension Scheme, putting a series of questions to them, and expects a response by the 8th of January when the House returns from recess.
- Letter from the Chair to Active Wealth relating to British Steel Pension Scheme advice, 18 December 2017
- Letter from Darren Reynolds to the Chair relating to British Steel Pension Scheme, 12 December 2017
- Letter from the Chair to Clive Howells, Celtic Wealth, relating to oral evidence on 13 December, 12 December 2017
- Letter from the Chair to Darren Reynolds relating to pension transfer advice, 18 December 2017
- Letter from the Chair to Darren Reynolds relating to oral evidence on 13 December, 12 December 2017
- Letter from Celtic Wealth to the Chair relating to failure to give oral evidence to the Committee, 12 December 2017
- Inquiry: Pension freedom and choice
- Work and Pensions Committee
The letters are being published with a further exchange of correspondence from last week around their failure to attend.
Transferring out of final salary pension generally a terrible idea
Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Committee, said:
"Transferring out of a gold plated final salary pension is generally a terrible idea, except in very particular circumstances.
Firms that are routinely advising people to take this route should be shut out of taking this type of business. I am very interested to hear the 'particular circumstances' that justify the advice Active Wealth gave, which they tell us resulted in around 100 members transferring out of the BSPS before they were stopped, and the total fees they have received for this wisdom.
I'm also interested to hear what benefits these unregulated 'introducers' think they offer to clients besides chicken - or as Celtic Wealth insists, sausage - and chips lunches."
Further information
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