It also orders the adviser to pay £200,000 in compensation
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Geoffrey Armin, who ran the now-dissolved Retirement and Pension Planning Services, from advising customers on pension transfers and pension opt outs after finding him “seriously incompetent.”
The regulator has also barred the adviser from holding any senior management function in a regulated firm as a result of his failures in advice given to British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) members.
While running Retirement and Pension Planning Services, Armin advised 422 customers on the transfer of their defined benefit (DB) pensions, including 183 BSPS members – 174 of whom transferred out of the scheme following his recommendation. These fees added up to £2.2 million for all DB transfer advice, 55% or approximately £1.2 million of which was retained by Retirement and Pension Planning Services and Armin.
The FCA said that Armin routinely failed to obtain the necessary information he needed to assess the suitability of a pension transfer and provided unsuitable advice to his customers as a result.
“Armin gave bad advice and pocketed large fees for doing so,” stated Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority. “People rely on the advice they’re given for financial security into old age.
“His advice not only put at risk the pensions people had worked for, it also eroded the trust between advisers and clients. Such callous incompetence has no place in financial services.”
Armin already agreed to pay a substantial proportion of his assets to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) as compensation. He will also pay £200,000 to the FSCS to contribute to redress due to his customers, including members of the BSPS. To date, the FSCS has paid out £3.96 million in compensation to Armin’s customers.
Last year, the FCA fined financial advisory firm Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre Limited £2.35 million for also providing unsuitable advice to BSPS members.
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