CoronavirusJul 2 2020

Read it now: Transfer denial bites steelworkers & IFA slams 'aggressive' CMCs

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
Read it now: Transfer denial bites steelworkers & IFA slams 'aggressive' CMCs

British Steel pension scheme members who were denied a block transfer have warned of financial hardship as Covid-19 bites.

Financial Adviser's front-page story tells of steelworkers who were denied so-called buddy transfers by British Steel Pension Scheme trustees, despite MPs at the time warning that steelworkers should be allowed to do so. 

As a result, former members of BSPS have not been given the usual rights to access their pension cash between 50 and 54 under the scheme rules; coupled with redundancies occurring because of the Covid-19 crisis, many have called this a devastating double blow to former members. 

Stephen Timms, chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee, told Financial Adviser: "The trustees' decision not to allow the transfers looks questionable" in the light of the ongoing pandemic and economic fallout.

Also in Financial Adviser this week, financial planner Philip Milton warned that claims management companies were circling his own clients - those transferred to him when discretionary fund manager Organic Investment Management went bust last year. These clients - up to 1600 or so - are eligible for compensation but Mr Milton said "aggressive" CMCs have been targeting these clients and offering to recoup their money for extortionately high cuts of the potential payout. 

Elsewhere in the paper, mortgage brokers warned of problems lining up in the mortgage market as high loan-to-value products are pulled, while the insurance industry has produced a white paper outlining ways to prevent spurious and misleading protection adverts from proliferating amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

To read all this, and to access exclusive interviews, opinion and comment and community stories, click on this link, which takes you to the digital version of this week's edition.

To receive your own digital version of Financial Adviser delivered to your inbox, click here

As Financial Adviser is committed to bringing you quality long-reads every week, we are also offering the chance for you to get a hard copy delivered free to your home or to an alternative address for the duration of these travel restrictions or as long as you are working remotely.

Please register at ftadviser.com/fasubs and we can get a form sent out for you to fill in securely using your unique reader numbers.

Stay safe and healthy, both you and your families.

Simoney Kyriakou, editor