Pensions transfers continue to drive media interest. The advice that consumers may have been getting in terms of whether or not to transfer out of valuable final salary schemes has been under scrutiny by the regulator and the press. Rostrum recently focused on this hot topic to secure coverage for Buck – a leading consulting, technology, and administration services firm specialising in pensions and employee benefits – on the front page of the Financial Times.

Rostrum and Buck worked together to compile a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, which revealed that the FCA will write to 1,841 of the 2,426 advisory firms in the market whose DB pension transfer advice it examined to set out its expectations and the actions these firms should take. The FCA’s investigation found that 69% of members who had asked for DB pensions advice had been recommended to transfer out of their DB pension schemes, a figure that the FCA deemed higher than expected.

Mark van den Berghen, Principal and Senior Consulting Actuary at Buck, said “This latest information from the FCA is alarming and should worry all involved – providers, advisers, and scheme members… there are some serious questions to be asked of the industry.”

The story led the front page of the print edition of the Financial Times and was shared on social media by journalists at the BBC and ITV, with MP Nick Smith and James Coney, the Money Editor at The Times also commenting on the news. The story was also covered across the investment and pensions trades, as well as appearing in City A.M. and as a follow-up piece in the Financial Times.

If you want to find out more about how Rostrum delivers Tier One media coverage for our clients using FOIs and other techniques, please get in touch enquiries@rostrum.agency.

Sources:

https://buck.com/uk/press/76-of-firms-may-have-provided-potentially-harmful-defined-benefit-transfer-advice-says-fca/

https://www.ft.com/content/18494748-3ebc-11ea-b232-000f4477fbca

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1220834711133728770

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-01-25/police-unable-to-deal-with-number-of-fraud-cases-leads-today-s-papers/

https://twitter.com/BlaenauGwentMP/status/1221816624048672770

https://twitter.com/jimconey/status/1221001789551542272

https://www.cityam.com/fca-facing-calls-to-probe-concerning-pension-transfer-advice/

https://www.ft.com/content/607678d5-f39d-4eb2-9cf1-4744c018ecc3