Upheld: General financial advice complaint against Murphy Wealth Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr M complained that Murphy Wealth Limited failed to fairly disclose transaction charges within his SIPP and underrepresented annual management charges when he transferred his pension in November 2020. MWL presented charges as a single 0.24% AMC when the actual charges comprised lower AMCs plus separate transaction costs (varying between 0.04% and 0.06% across different years). The ombudsman upheld the complaint, finding MWL failed to provide clear and accurate information in breach of Principle 7, but rejected Mr M's claim for reimbursement of transaction charges as these were levied by third-party funds and would have been incurred regardless of MWL's disclosure. The ombudsman awarded £150 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by the repeated failure to correctly disclose charges across multiple annual reviews.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that MWL failed to comply with Principle 7 by not providing clear and accurate information about charges. The presentation of asset costs as 'MW50 Portfolio AMC' was confusing and the stated cost of 0.24% was incorrect. However, the ombudsman concluded that the transaction charges were not within MWL's direct control as they were levied by third-party managed funds selected by MWL. The ombudsman reasoned that Mr M would have incurred these charges regardless and would likely have proceeded with the transfer even if correctly informed that total charges would be approximately 0.27% rather than 0.24%. Therefore, reimbursement of transaction fees was not appropriate. However, the repeated failure to clearly disclose charges over multiple years caused Mr M distress and inconvenience warranting compensation.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website