Retirement planning specialist Intelligent Pensions has been ordered to pay £33,422.65 in compensation after it “failed to act in a timely manner” while conducting a defined benefit to defined contribution transfer.

Mr. L complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) when he missed the deadline to receive the guaranteed transfer value, after Intelligent Pensions requested information from his occupational pension scheme just over a week before the deadline.

The complainant received his benefit documents on 7 February 2017, with a three month guarantee date, and met with Intelligent Pensions on 21 February 2017 to discuss the process. However, the firm did not request the scheme information until 24 April 2017.

FOS ombudsman, David Ashley, said: “Intelligent Pensions was aware of Mr. L’s intentions to transfer at the meeting with him on 21 February 2017. It would have known that the transfer process was time sensitive and that there was a deadline to meet.

“Intelligent Pensions ought to have been aware and alert to the fact that securing the transfer value was time critical. In my view it didn’t act reasonably in waiting several weeks before requesting the scheme information. I think against this background, it’s clear it failed to act in a timely manner.”

Despite this, Intelligent Pensions said it is not responsible for the loss as it provided the information to the administrator on 2 May 2017, prior to the 7 May deadline, but the ombudsman added that “by leaving it so late, there was very little time to resolve matters if there was a problem”.

Intelligent Pensions contacted Mr. L's scheme on 2 May 2017 and provided the relevant documentation on that day. However, the transferring scheme did not realise information was missing until 8 May, a day after the deadline.

As a result, the final transfer value was £1,003,121 compared to the original guaranteed transfer value of £1,036,543.

“Accordingly, I’m satisfied that Mr L received a lower transfer value as a result of the poor level of service provided by Intelligent Pensions Ltd. Therefore I’m satisfied that Mr L’s complaint should succeed,” Ashely added.

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