An independent financial adviser has been fighting for five months to obtain a client’s details from a provider, having sent a letter of authority in March this year.
Scott Gallacher, director at Leicester-based Rowley Turton, told FTAdviser that even though he sent a letter of authority in March, it was not until August that he received a fax from Friends Life with most of the information requested.
Three months after Mr Gallacher had started the process with Friends Life and had still not received the information for his client he lodged a formal complaint.
Friends Life acknowledged the complaint with a letter shortly afterwards but he then received two more letters regarding from the provider explaining they could not resolve the issue.
Finally, in August, he received a fax with most of the information requested. In the letter Friends Life it had recently undergone a software upgrade so it was not always possible to deal with member’s enquiries as promptly as it would like to.
I agree entirely with the adviser that this could have jeopardised the client’s future. Paul LindfieldMr Gallacher subsequently requested a retirement pack and was told this could take another 40 days to eight weeks.
Mr Gallacher told FTAdviser he was concerned that there was “over a five month delay to get basic information” for a number of reasons.
These included that in his view the world has seen a few significant changes in the last few months, such as Brexit, a new prime minister, a further base rate cut and a fall in annuity rates.
He said: “If buying an annuity, rates would have been significantly lower. Death benefits would have been horrific, had he had return of contribution.
“There could have been specialist benefits on products such as guaranteed annuity rates, and with a lot of these products you need to take them at a certain time to get the benefit. For all I know that could have been four months ago.
“We are talking about life changing amounts of money for some people.”
Mr Gallacher said in his view the reason for such delays was cost cutting.
An spokesman for Aviva, which took over Friends Life, said: “We sincerely apologise for the poor level of service we have provided and we are looking into the cause of the delays as a matter of urgency.
“We aim to resolve all complaints quickly and fairly. Where we have caused a delay, we will also make sure the client hasn’t lost out financially.
“Where we fail to meet expectations, our first priority is to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and act on any feedback we receive, and we are sorry that we were not able to do so in this case.”
Paul Lindfield, director of wealth management of Manchester-based Sedulo Wealth Management said: “We do see a lot of this happening.
“I agree entirely with the adviser that this could have jeopardised the client’s future. There are so many different variables at the moment and you need information to react.
“It also gives the wrong impression of the adviser to the client when it is not his fault. Complaints are not really taken seriously by life insurers anymore.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
