Aegon has altered its policy after an adviser complained about it twice cutting off trail commission and barring him from managing clients’ investment bonds without notifying him or his clients.
The insurer and pension provider has said in the future it will always inform the adviser and client if it believe there is no ongoing advice relationship between them.
Kevin Hopwood, managing director of Hopwood Ash Financial Planning Consultancy, told FTAdviser he only realised his agency had been removed from two Aegon investment bonds which he had set up more than five years ago when he tried unsuccessfully to access them online.
When he contacted Aegon, he was told that his agency had been revoked due to prolonged inactivity. Mr Hopwood claims he had regular telephone and face-to-face contact with the clients but hadn’t accessed the Aegon website because he hadn’t needed to.
Concerned that Aegon was able to remove servicing rights without notifying either himself or his client, Mr Hopwood lodged a formal complaint with the insurer.
On 4 June Aegon reinstated Mr Hopwood and said in an email seen by FTAdviser: “We have a contractual right to take a view on whether the intermediary is still servicing the client based on, amongst other things, intermediary activity.
“There is no obligation on us to consult either the intermediary or the client.”
However, the next day Aegon sent a letter to Mr Hopwood’s clients saying that they had once again transferred the servicing rights on a policy away from the adviser.
Mr Hopwood contacted Aegon a second time and once again had his agency reinstated.
A spokesperson for Aegon said: “At times, in the past, information we had indicated there was no longer an ongoing customer/adviser relationship. On some such occasions, we have removed agency details from a customer’s policy without informing the adviser, however this was never a frequent occurrence.
“In future, we will notify advisers and customers if we have reason to believe there is no longer an ongoing advice relationship. There is no question of us intentionally removing an agency from a policy where there is ongoing advice.
“If for any reason we remove an agency and find there is an ongoing advice relationship, we will reinstate the agency.”
