Have I been mis-sold an FSAVC?

Have I been mis-sold a FSAVC?

A Free Standing Additional Voluntary Contribution (FSAVC) arrangement allows a member of an occupational pension scheme to ‘top up’ their retirement funds by paying into a personal product outside of their company pension scheme. The higher costs usually associated with the product may have a significant impact on their eventual retirement fund whilst members may have also missed out on the benefits of an in-house pension – such as lower costs a, ‘added years’ and the security of an employer scheme. Areas that we look at in a potential mis-selling case are:

a) In-house AVC Scheme - could the member have joined an in-house AVC scheme? If so, was this option mentioned to them by the adviser?

b) Higher costs – was the member told that the FSAVC had higher costs than an in-house arrangement that could decrease the value of the pension fund?

c) Funds – did the member receive details of the funds the FSAVC was investing in?

d) Added Years – did the employer scheme’s AVC arrangement give an ‘added years’ option?