Another British Steel adviser fails with six claims at FSCS

PWH Financial Planning, trading as WGN Wealth Management, dissolved on December 13.

The FSCS has received six claims against the firm. Of those, four are in progress and two have been completed and upheld.

All six claims are for pension transfers, and within these claims there is at least one from a former BSPS member who is claiming for advice they received to transfer out.

Other BSPS advisers already declared in default include: Acklam Financial, A. W. Dallas Financial Services (trading as Portfolio Pension Consultancy), Independent Benefit Consultancy, Tramway Financial Management and West Wales Financial Services (trading as IWA Financial Solutions, and Mike Powell Mortgages).

The BSPS case

During 2017, BSPS members were asked to make decisions about their pensions as part of a restructure of the scheme.

About 8,000 members transferred out of the scheme, with transfers collectively worth about £2.8bn.

But concerns about the suitability of the transfers were soon raised, leading to an intervention from the Financial Conduct Authority that resulted in a number of advice firms – key players in the debacle – stopping their transfer advice service, while others went out of business.

The debacle created a mountain of liabilities, which lawyers believe could end up costing the industry up to £300m.

In September, the FCA travelled to Swansea to meet steelworkers who could be due compensation but were met with mixed feelings, with some showing no interest while others claimed they were unable to book a place.

The City watchdog also travelled to Swansea last month (November 22 to 25) to meet steelworkers about bringing possible claims against their adviser.

This article has been amended to reflect that PWH Financial Planning is not in any way associated with Tavistock, as previously stated.

sonia.rach@ft.com

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