(Adds Quilter)
By Huw Jones
LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) - Britain's markets watchdog has
banned contingent charging from October after lawmakers
criticised financial advisers for ripping off steelworkers
facing critical decisions about their pensions
Contingent charging refers to financial advisers not earning
their fee for pensions advice unless it results in a transfer,
creating an incentive to push clients to move from one scheme to
another even though it may not be in their best interests.
The Financial Conduct Authority said its ban means that
advisers must charge the same amount for advice to transfer a
pension pot as for advice not to transfer.
"The proportion of customers who have been advised to
transfer out of their defined benefit pension is unacceptably
high," FCA interim Chief Executive Christopher Woolard said.
In a 2018 parliamentary report, lawmakers criticised the FCA
for being too slow to prevent "vulture" advisers ripping off
steelworkers in Port Talbot, Wales, by forcing them to choose
between moving their British Steel pension to a new company
scheme or joining a lifeboat scheme.
A lifeboat is a scheme set up by the government to protect
pension benefits when their employer becomes insolvent.
The Association of British Insurers said the ban was "the
right thing to do". Pensions company Aegon however said
accessing advice will be even harder, while Canada Life pensions
firm cautioned against "demonising" all transfers.
The FCA said on Friday that in reviewing pensions advice
given in defined benefit cases across the market, it found that
the percentage of clients given unsuitable advice in the British
Steel scheme was higher than those in the rest of the sample.
The watchdog will write to 7,700 former members of the
British Steel scheme to help them to revisit the advice they
received, and to complain if they have concerns.
The FCA is undertaking 30 enforcement investigations arising
from its scrutiny of the defined pensions advice market.
Wealth manager Quilter said its subsidiary Lighthouse
Advisory Services was being investigated in relation to advice
on transfers out of the British Steel pension scheme.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by John Stonestreet and Jan
Harvey and Kirsten Donovan)
