The Gold Standard for Defined Benefit Transfers

In 2018, a parliamentary select committee revealed that thousands of British Steel pension scheme members had been “shamelessly bamboozled” into transferring their pensions to unsuitable funds with high charges.

Nearly a quarter of pension transfer advisers in the UK left the market following this episode and the number of firms offering advice has continued to shrink as firms have found that their Professional Indemnity Insurers (PII) insurers are no longer willing to cover them for defined benefit pensions advice amid fears of miss-selling.

So, how is the profession serving clients and which advisers are serving them?

The Personal Finance Society (PFS) Gold Standard is a voluntary code of good practice for safeguarded and defined benefit pension (DB) transfer advice, based around a set of principles.

Firms can adopt and promote this standard and principles, so consumers can better understand and find good advice, and be confident they are dealing with a firm that is going be