How long should an annuity transfer take? If it takes a few weeks, that’s considered quite a long time. However, one retiree had to wait two years to draw his own pension!
Bruce Jamieson from Bognor Regis-based Jamieson Financial Services arranged to transfer a client’s pension fund from his pension provider, Pearl-owned NPI to purchase an annuity from Just Retirement.
Jamieson was quoted as saying:
˜First the product was wrong, then the paperwork, and when it was right because it was a corporate scheme you had to have the right paperwork [for that].
To begin with, Jamieson received out-of-date transfer forms. Then, Jamieson suffered further delays when he had to contact the client’s previous financial adviser to get the information he needed. Then there was communication from the two trustees of the client’s group pension scheme and the situation was exacerbated because one was in New Zealand and the other was in the UK.
Unfortunately, these sort of administration and communication issues are not uncommon.A recent report from Partnership Assurance and Hargreaves Lansdown, released last week, highlighted that when a life office closes the pension transfer process became particularly slow. According to this report, Phoenix Life was the worst offender with an average process time of 61 days.
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