The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Keith Dickinson and Andrew Allen of Mansion Park Limited (in liquidation) from advising customers on pension transfers and pension opt-outs, with £155,000 to be paid in compensation.

The pair were banned for British Steel Pension Scheme advice (BSPS) failings, after the FCA found that Dickinson provided unsuitable pension transfer advice, which Allen signed off, between June 2015 and December 2017.

Dickinson and Allen will also be required to pay £70,000 and £85,606, respectively, to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to contribute towards the compensation owed to Mansion Park’s customers.

However, the FSCS has so far paid out almost £3m in compensation to Mansion Park customers for the unsuitable advice they received, including over £2m for advice provided by Dickinson.

In total, 400 Mansion Park customers were advised to transfer out of their defined benefit (DB) transfer scheme, 135 of which were advised by Dickinson, including 68 members of the BSPS.

In total, those advised by Dickinson had pension benefits worth approximately £36.8m.

The FCA found that Allen had also demonstrated a lack of competence in his oversight of advice for 328 (82 per cent) of those 400 Mansion Park customers, including 72 who were BSPS members.

The regulator argued that it was "critical" that members received sound advice from Mansion Park, considering customers transferring out of the BSPS were in a vulnerable position due to the uncertainty surrounding the future of their pension scheme.

However, the FCA found that, in most of the advice Dickinson provided and the files Allen signed off, the advice was unsuitable as it was based on the flawed assumption that transferring would be in their customer’s best interest.

The advice provided also did not assess whether customers were relying on income from their DB pension scheme in retirement, whether the customer understood the risks of transferring out or whether they could bear those financial risks.

Commenting on the decision, FCA joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, Therese Chambers, said: "People turned to Mansion Park to give them vital advice so they’d have financial peace of mind in retirement.

"Both Mr Dickinson and Mr Allen failed to do their job. They put people’s hard earned retirement money at risk and so it is only right that they contribute to the costs of compensating these people.

"We will continue to take action where failings by advisers put their customers at risk."

Any customers who were advised to transfer by Mansion Park should contact the FSCS to see if they are owed compensation.

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