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Ban the bandits
Those offering advice encouraging people to access their pension funds at the earliest point need to be dealt with swiftly
There is an urgent case for the FSA to launch a retrospective investigation in to those advisers who encourage people to access their pensions funds at the earliest possible opportunity.
It is understandable that someone aged just over 50 and unemployed or receiving a basic incapacity benefit may be anxious to access any benefits in a deferred pension. But it is unfair when an adviser - many of them advertising in the mass-circulation Sunday tabloids - can make as much as £1500 for talking to someone on the telephone then writing a letter to trustees informing them that their so-called clients wants to draw on his pension.
If treating customers fairly is to mean anything, then such firms must be treated as out and out bandits. Further, although the suggestion of retrospective action is abhorrent to us, this is uniquely when such an approach would be justified.
