Standard Life cites TCF as it denies fresh poaching claims

A director of an IFA firm has written an email to Standard Life accusing it of attempting to poach customers after he received letters telling him a new adviser had been appointed for three clients.

Andy Gibson, director at Hertfordshire-based HCF Partnership, received three letters from Standard Life stating that a new adviser has been appointed for three people.

When he investigated this matter, he discovered that only one of the clients had appointed a different IFA. He alleges that Standard Life removed his details so they can deal directly with the individuals.

Standard Life has denied the claims, saying it only removes an adviser’s details from a customer’s record if the customer tells them that they are no longer dealing with that adviser.

Mr Gibson admitted that the individuals were old clients “who he has not been in contact with for ages”, but he maintained that the actions amounted to poaching clients.

He has written back to Standard Life, asking that it reinstates the firm as the adviser for two of the clients and to make an ex-gratia payment to cover the time “he has taken to ascertain the situation”.

The email reads: “Finally you are to mark all of the policies through our agency so as to ensure this does not reoccur. Please confirm you are dealing with this as a formal complaint and respond accordingly.”

A spokesperson for Standard Life insisted that the provider is committed to intermediaries and said that it’s correspondence with clients was in line with Treating Customers Fairly principles laid out by the Financial Services Authority.

The spokesperson said: “Under the FSA’s TCF guidelines Standard Life’s product provider responsibilities are to provide customers with clear information and to keep them appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale.

“For example we write to customers one year before they are due to retire and do not copy in their adviser. This is an awareness letter for our customers but we do suggest they speak to their adviser about the options they may have.

“If an adviser is removed in error we will always reinstate them. We will deal with the customer in the way they want to be dealt with.

“We do not steal customers from advisers and we would never aggressively pursue business with a customer who has an ongoing relationship with an intermediary.”

There has been a cluster of poaching claims involving Standard Life over the last six months in particular, which Mr Gibson alleges coincides with when Standard Life announced that they were to “increase its direct sales force by 2,500”.

A spokesperson for Standard Life dismissed this, stating that it no longer has a face-to-face advice business and is not recruiting 2,500 staff to its direct sales force.