Herald - Issue 417

6th January 2022 • The HERALD • Page 51 v SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE HERALD v ASK A PROFESSIONAL Tel: 023 8254 7600 TMT House, 12 The Marsh, Hythe, Southampton, SO45 6AL enquiry@tmtlegalservices.co.uk www.tmtlegalservices.co.uk Your Local Legal Specialists PROPERTY & CONVEYANCING SERVICES We specialise in Property Services from buying your new home to investment portfolios and newbuilds. Call the Team on 023 8254 7600 or visit our website for our online quotation tool where you can also instruct us If you come into any of these categories, then you will need to complete a self-assessment. Other services that we can provide M G ACCOUNTANCY SERVICES Telephone & Fax: 023 8089 1351 • Email: mgeere@btinternet.com Specialising in Bookkeeping and Accountancy Services in and around the New Forest and Waterside area, be assured of a local and friendly service. Are you self-employed? Are you a small business? Are you a landlord? Do you have investment income? NEW LIMITED COMPANY SET UP VAT RETURNS CREDIT CONTROL OUT OF HOURS CONSULTATIONS BUSINESS PLANS PAYROLL • CIS GENERAL BOOKKEEPING CORPORATION TAX Don’t let this be you at the end of the tax year Top Tips for Avoiding Getting Scammed Out of your Hard-Earned Pension Pot Advice from Pension Justice It is estimated that more than 1.3 million people have been targeted by unscrupulous regulated and unregulated nancial advisors who have pedalled bad advice. eseunscrupulous advisors have persuaded many people to transfer their existing private pensions or extremely valuable de ned bene t pensions, to open a SIPP (Self Invested Personal Plan) and to “invest” in unregulated, high risk and illiquid “investments”. Many people have lost most, if not all, of their pensions which they have been paying into all of their working lives. In some cases, people have transferred pension pots of £500,000 or more into worthless “investments” sold to them by dodgy or incompetent nancial advisors who were not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Investments that promise signi cant returns but deliver losses have led to people losing most or all of their pension funds, leaving them devastated, o en traumatised, unable to retire comfortably and o en unable to retire at all. Solicitor Paul Higgins of Pension Justice, a law rm that specialises in assisting victims of pension mis-selling to help recover some of their lost money, says: “That old adage of ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true’ couldn’t apply more than in the case of pension mis-selling. We’ve had clients that have been promised huge returns on unregulated investments into things such as storage pods, airport car parking spaces, fractional ownership of property in Cape Verde, carbon credits and more, which sadly have all turned out to be worthless”. Pension Justice has helped its clients, who have been given bad advice, to recover millions of pounds in compensation and has the following top tips to help people from falling victim to pension mis-selling. Knowing what red ags to look out for could save a person from making a terrible mistake that could help them avoid losing their pension and ruining their retirement. 1. Be suspicious of cold calls from financial advisors. As a general rule don’t take cold calls. If you don’t know who they are, put the phone down. If you are interested in talking to them, do some background research into their qualifications and the investments they are o ering. Promises of doubling your money are probably worthless. Unfortunately, there aremany unscrupulous “advisors” out there who prey on people by o ering “free pension reviews”. Under no circumstances agree to anything on the phone or invite them into your home, however convincing, how friendly they are or how much pressure they put you under. Check with the Financial Conduct Authority to see if they are authorised to provide nancial advice. 2. Do your homework on the investments offered . Look up pension mis-selling, discuss the investment opportunity with friends and family and ask someone to help you do some research online if you are not internet savvy. Unregulated investments are highly risky, and you could lose your life savings for the baseless promise of high returns. 3. Make sure you understand the terms and conditions. Your nancial adviser is in a position of trust and has to communicate the terms and conditions of any products they are selling. ey need to ensure you are fully informed before making any decisions. If your pensions advisers don’t explain any terms and conditions, you will likely be able to le a claim. 4. Ask for a full breakdown of fees and charges . Make sure you nd out exactly how much this transfer will cost you in terms of fees and annual charges. Again, victims of mis-selling sometimes end up paying out more money to the advisor than their pension earns. If the advisor is not clear about these fees and charges, then walk away. 5. You have been advised to transfer your pension from a workplace pension . It is doubtful that it will be bene cial for you to transfer your extremely valuable de ned bene t pension and there is a good chance that you will be mis-sold.