The latest action from the FCA;
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has decided to ban Daniel Thomas from working in financial services and fine him £742,700 after finding he recklessly gave defined benefit pension transfer advice he was neither qualified nor allowed to give.
Mr Thomas was a director and financial adviser at DPT Financial Solutions Limited. Over 5 years Mr Thomas advised 53 clients about 63 transfers out of defined benefit pension schemes and is believed to have earned more than £173,000 in fees.
Mr Thomas repeatedly misled clients and pension providers about his professional qualifications, destroyed client records and failed to co-operate with the FCA’s investigation.
Mr Thomas’ firm was an appointed representative. This meant another firm (known as a principal) had responsibility for overseeing its actions. Mr Thomas provided misleading information to his principal firm about his involvement in the pension transfer cases.
It is not normally in consumers’ best interests to transfer out of defined benefit pensions because they provide valuable, guaranteed benefits which increase annually. That is why only those advisers with specialist qualifications and the correct permissions can advise people on whether to transfer out.
Therese Chambers, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said:
“When you advise someone on their pension, you hold their future in your hands. Mr Thomas recklessly betrayed that responsibility.
We will not stop acting against those ignoring our rules and unfairly putting people and their hard-earned money at risk.”
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