TransactAug 21 2020

Transact tightens transfer rules for insistent clients

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Transact tightens transfer rules for insistent clients

Investment platform Transact has tightened its defined benefit transfer rules and will no longer accept cases from insistent clients.

The platform said any transfer worth more than £30,000 will now require a positive recommendation from an adviser, meaning cases where clients insist on transferring against the advice given to them will no longer be accepted.

Transfers under £30,000 will still be allowed to progress without first receiving advice.

Jonathan Gunby, chief executive officer of Transact, said: “Transact works with advisers and does not seek to attract non-advised clients.

"And so we wanted to make it absolutely clear that for transfers of safeguarded benefits that exceed £30,000, we will only accept the transfer if the client has received a personal recommendation to transfer their benefits."

This comes after the Financial Conduct Authority raised concerns about firms accepting insistent clients in its policy statement on DB transfer advice in June.

Last month, FTAdviser reported that the financial regulator is also probing advisers on revenue received from clients who were advised against a DB transfer but proceeded on an insistent basis anyway. 

In a survey sent to thousands of advisers in the DB market, the FCA asked up to 36 questions about the pension transfer advice they provided between October 2018 and March 2020. 

Last year the regulator published the results of its last survey of the defined benefit market, between April 2015 and September 2018, which across 3,015 firms found almost 10,000 clients had proceeded with a defined benefit transfer on an insistent basis.  

The topic has been gaining traction in the industry over recent years, with the Personal Finance Society repeatedly warning of the risks associated with facilitating insistent clients - including the impact it could have on an adviser's professional indemnity insurance. 

amy.austin@ft.com

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