Not upheld: Pension transfer advice complaint against FIL Investments International
Financial Ombudsman decision DRN-5907770 of 2025-11-10T00:00:00+00:00. Pension transfer advice complaint against FIL Investments International. Outcome: Not upheld.
Decision detail
| Reference | DRN-5907770 |
|---|---|
| Decision date | 2025-11-10T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Firm | FIL Investments International |
| Product | Pension |
| Claim type | Pension transfer advice |
| Outcome | Not upheld |
| Remedy | FIL paid £150 compensation for distress and inconvenience. The ombudsman declined to order additional compensation or require FIL to cover any portion of Mr T's financial loss (reduced annuity income of approximately £1,000 annually). LG separately offered £400 for distress and inconvenience plus £1,097.93 (one month's income) and interest totalling £8.07 for delays it caused. |
Summary
Mr T complained that FIL, along with adviser AP and annuity provider LG, caused delays in transferring his SIPP funds to purchase an enhanced annuity, resulting in him missing a 19 December 2023 guarantee deadline and receiving a lower annuity rate worth approximately £1,000 less annually. FIL made several errors including: taking 11 working days to provide information (should have been 5), failing to identify a failed payment of crystallised funds for 20 working days, and not ensuring payment success. However, the ombudsman found that LG's failure to request all funds when it should have (16-23 working days delay) was the overriding cause of missing the deadline. The ombudsman concluded FIL was not responsible for the financial loss but upheld that it caused distress and inconvenience through its 15 working days of avoidable delays, finding its £150 compensation payment fair and proportionate.
The Ombudsman's reasoning
The ombudsman found that while FIL caused avoidable delays totalling 15 working days through: (1) taking 11 working days instead of 5 to provide information to AP; (2) failing to identify and rectify the failed crystallised funds payment for 20 working days (9 working days attributable to FIL after splitting equally with LG); and (3) not ensuring payment success, these errors were not the necessary cause of Mr T missing the guarantee deadline. LG's failure to request all funds when it should have (16-23 working days delay) was the overriding and significant cause. The ombudsman concluded that even without FIL's errors, LG's delays alone would have prevented Mr T from meeting the deadline. Therefore, FIL was not responsible for the financial loss (lower annuity rate), only for distress and inconvenience caused by its specific errors, which the £150 compensation adequately addressed.
How this compares
| Group | Decisions | Uphold rate |
|---|---|---|
| FIL Investments International, all decisions | 7 | 14% |
| Pension transfer advice, all decisions | 7,542 | 54% |
| Pension, all decisions | 15,409 | 47% |
Source
Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website