Most people don’t think twice about questioning their financial advisor. If they suggest something could be good for your financial situation then you’ll likely listen to them. Even if you do question them, they’ll probably give you a great response that you can’t really argue against. After all, if you knew more about finances than they did, you wouldn’t have hired them to help you! Unfortunately, this trust can easily be abused by vulture financial advisers. These people purposely mislead innocent pensioners and leech off their hard-earned money. Thankfully, there are plenty of companies out there that help these people seek justice, but it’s often not enough because you’ll need to know if you’ve been mis-sold a pension in the first place.
So how do you know if you’ve been mis-sold a pension? Here are some things to look out for.
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What you should look out for
If you’re wondering if you’ve been mis-sold a pension or not then here are some of the common signs to look out for.
- Did your advisor seem shady from the beginning? For example, did they frequently skip out terms and conditions and did they claim to be more experienced than they appeared? Trust your gut with this and don’t be afraid to ask questions to truly test if your financial advisor knows what they’re doing.
- Did your financial advisor suggest transferring money to different schemes? In particular, did they suggest moving money from a workplace pension to something else? While this isn’t always a red flag, you should be cautious about doing this.
- Can your financial advisor explain their fees? If they charge a lot of money for their services but can’t break down what their fees go towards, then there’s a chance they could be mis-selling you products and abusing your trust.
- Is your financial advisor recommending high-risk pensions and investments? Most financial advisors understand that pensioners want stability, not to gamble their money away.
What should you do now?
If you think that you’ve been mis-sold a financial product by a bank or another company, it’s vital to contact them as quickly as possible and get in touch. In most cases, you have around 6 years after the sale of the financial product to make a claim. If it’s been much longer than that, then you have 3 years from the date that you’ve noticed something wrong with your finances.
There’s a lot of impartial advice on mis-sold pensions that you can get from the internet, but we urge you to speak to a trusted financial advisor that can help you set your finances straight. Making a claim can be daunting, but it’s essential if you want to claim back some of the money that you’ve lost.
