Not upheld: Pension transfer advice complaint against Murphy Wealth Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr M complained that Murphy Wealth Limited gave unsuitable advice to transfer his deferred occupational pension scheme to a SIPP and that it failed to clearly disclose ongoing charges, particularly a 0.2% annual investment management fee. MWL had been invited by the FCA to review the suitability of the transfer advice and commissioned an independent actuary to calculate any financial loss. The actuary determined Mr M had suffered no financial detriment. The ombudsman found that since no financial loss was demonstrated, there was nothing to remedy on the suitability issue. On the charges disclosure issue, the ombudsman determined that MWL had clearly communicated the 0.2% fee to Mr M through presentation slides at a meeting on 30 October 2020, prior to him accepting the recommendation, despite procedural failures in obtaining signed agreement. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

On the suitability issue, the ombudsman determined that since MWL had already commissioned an independent actuary to calculate any financial loss and that calculation showed Mr M suffered no financial detriment, there was nothing for the ombudsman to put right and it was unnecessary to make a finding on suitability. On the charges issue, the ombudsman found that although MWL failed to obtain signed agreement to charges prior to the transfer, the evidence showed MWL had clearly communicated the 0.2% annual fee to Mr M by 30 October 2020 through presentation slides at a meeting, prior to Mr M accepting the recommendation. The ombudsman was persuaded that Mr M had seen and checked the charges, evidenced by his correspondence with MWL regarding the correction of the fixed charge error.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website