FTAdviser.com

Advertising

The error occurred in 2001 due to a repricing of Standard Life’s unit linked pension products, with 6,800 customers being affected.

A spokesman for Standard Life said: "In 2001 and 2002, we repriced all of our unit-linked pension products and 7,000 contracts we misallocated the number of units, with too many or too few.

"It was an unusual circumstance we had to sell the units on the old series of funds and buy units under a new charging structure."

Broken down, 4,200 policies had units that were overstated, meaning policyholders pension plans were worth less than had been communicated to them. A further 2,600 had units that were understated, meaning the plans were worth more than policyholders thought.

The spokesman said all customers who hold the unit-linked pension plans would have by now been informed if their policy had been affected.

He also said repricing did not take place that often but further controls had been implemented to prevent a repeat situation occurring.

He added: "We have now put in place further checks and controls. Repricing takes place very infrequently and there’s not been another reprice since."

In February, Standard Life also came under fire when it revealed its £2.4bn Pension Sterling fund had been the subject of a revaluation, which saw 5 per cent taken off the value of the fund and left around 94,000 investor’s £1,000 worse off. (See article.)