An IFA has accused Standard Life of poaching his auto-enrolment business, following a direct call from the provider to his client asking about setting up a pension scheme.
Stephen Walker, independent financial adviser at Lyn Financial Services, told FTAdviser the client had an existing group personal pension in place with Standard Life, which he reviewed for auto-enrolment.
When he initially asked the firm if it would comply with the legislation, Mr Walker was told to wait until nearer the staging date, which is next February.
“As this would leave no time to set up an alternative solution, I conducted some initial research and it was clear that it would not be compliant,” he explained.
Mr Walker recommended a new scheme and sessions with employees to explain moving from the group personal pension, which would become paid up once the new pension has staged.
The client then received a call from Standard Life asking if he had anything in place for auto-enrolment, offering free scheme set up and transfer through their website.
“This resulted in the client contacting me to ask why I had recommended Royal London when he could have selected Standard Life free of charge and transfer the old scheme, also free of charge,” explained Mr Walker.
“I reminded the client that the fees were for the advice that I provided and that I recommended Royal London as an independent adviser.”
“Since taking over as the servicing adviser for the current pension scheme and requesting details in order to conduct a review, I have been faced with numerous obstacles and delays.
“And now, when it is obvious there is an active IFA, they have contacted the client directly and suggested he take out a new Standard Life pension and transfer the old one at no cost.”
Standard Life responded to FTAdviser that the adviser should contact them directly to better understand the details of this case.
A spokesman for the former mutual said: “We take our responsibility to help employers achieve compliance very seriously, contacting both employer’s advisers and employers themselves to support this.
“Calls to employers are designed to prompt a discussion between employers and their advisers; if this has caused confusion on this occasion, then we apologise.”
Mr Walker said that his client still saw the benefit of receiving true financial advice, “since they wanted advice on not only the new pension scheme, but which fund they should invest in, rather than the standard default fund”.
In February this year, Standard Life acquired Skipton Building Society’s Pearson Jones advisory business - home to 39 advisers and paraplanners and assets under advice of £1.1bn - with the intention of building its own national financial planning firm.
Advisers were divided on what the move meant for them, with Murphy Wealth partner Adrian Murphy telling FTAdviser sister title Money Management at the time that he had seen this on the cards and as such had been “unwinding relationships with the likes of Standard Life”.
peter.walker@ft.com
