Failed firm tops Fos complaints with highest uphold rate

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Failed firm tops Fos complaints with highest uphold rate
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Failed pension advice firm Portal Financial Services has the highest uphold rate with the Financial Ombudsman Service, according to the latest complaints data.

The data, which covers July to December 2022, found that Portal had an uphold rate of 90 per cent overall, all of which was for decumulation and pensions.

Last week, Portal Financial Services LLP was declared in default with nearly 300 claims of poor advice against it.

The firm, formerly called Portafina LLP, entered compulsory liquidation on January 18 this year and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) declared the company as failed earlier this month.

Portal was followed in the data by Interactive Investor Services Limited which had the second highest uphold rate for decumulation and pensions at 53 per cent.

A spokesperson for Interactive Investor said: “Fos outcomes have evolved and now have a much greater emphasis on the overall customer journey, rather than the underlying issue in question. 

“This is welcome, but it does lead to higher upheld rates when this approach is applied retrospectively to historic cases from years before.”

The spokesperson said Interactive Investor has made “positive changes” to how it investigates, responds and reaches outcomes in the complaint handling processes. 

“So, while broadly in line with industry average uphold rates (37 per cent versus 34 per cent for the wider industry), we are very much focused on improving our scores as we focus on customer experience, and pride ourselves on our service.”

The Fos received a total of 79,921 new complaints in this period, compared to 72,978 in the first six months of 2022 (H1 2022). 

It upheld 34 per cent of complaints in the consumers’ favour compared to 37 per cent in H1 2022.

For decumulation life and pension complaints, there were a total of 3,842 new complaints compared to 4,193 in H1 2022.

Aviva had a total of 1,585 complaints, of which 504 were linked to its life and pensions business. From this, 42 accounted for investments while 330 were for decumulation, life and pensions. 

An Aviva spokesperson said: “Aviva takes complaints about its customer service very seriously and we are committed to providing an excellent service for all our customers. 

“Where we fail to meet customers’ expectations, our first priority is to resolve the matter as quickly as possible and to act on the feedback we receive.

“Although we aim for no complaints, the ones we get represent just 1.43 per 1,000 life policies in the UK.”

In the second half of 2021, Aviva was subject to a total 1,505 complaints.

The data, which was from July 2021 to December 2021, saw Aviva Insurance Limited receive a total of 928 new cases, of which 873 were for general insurance and pure protection, followed by payment protection insurance (42) and decumulation life and pensions (11). 

In this latest data, 31 per cent of investment complaints were upheld, while this was 26 per cent of the decumulation, life and pensions. 

The spokesperson said: “Where a customer still has concerns, we advise them of their right to approach the Financial Ombudsman Service. 

“Our ‘upheld’ rate remains in line with the market for pensions and investments, demonstrating our commitment to providing customers with a fair outcome when resolving their complaint.”

The data found there were 2,227 new investment complaints in H2 2022, compared to 2,427 in H1 2022.

Scottish Widows had 453 new cases, with 59 related to investments (46 per cent upheld) and 353 (28 per cent upheld) related to decumulation, life and pensions. 

ReAssure Limited had a total of 293 cases, with 43 for investments and 230 for decumulation, life and pensions. 

Of these, a total of 46 per cent were upheld, with 39 per cent for investments and 48 per cent for decumulation life and pensions.

A spokesperson for ReAssure said: “Ensuring customers receive the right outcomes from their complaints is important to us.

“While the quoted rate of decisions overturned is clearly high, it mainly relates to a set of complaints that arose in early 2021 when particularly high call volumes resulted in longer waiting times for some customers.”

The spokesperson told FTAdviser that the Fos has agreed with the vast majority of its complaint decisions for these cases, but the amount of compensation was lower than Fos expected for some criteria. 

“As a result, we have recalled these cases and have been proactively reviewing them to ensure their compensation payments are correct and aligned with Fos’s expectations,” the spokesperson said.

“We always look to get things right first time and apologise that this has not been the case for some customers in this instance. 

“Whilst this review is now effectively complete, we anticipate recording the final stages of this in further overturns over the next few months, and we are absolutely focused on putting this right for our customers.”

sonia.rach@ft.com

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