Legal General Employee Pension Plan · CAS-38230-D6R0

CAS-38230-D6R0

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Mr Y

Scheme Legal & General Employee Pension Plan (the Plan)

Respondent Legal & General Assurance Society (Legal & General)

Outcome

Complaint summary

Background information, including submissions from the parties

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Mr Y says that the shareholding within the SIPP should not have been sold without his express permission and he should have been consulted when Suffolk Life called querying the transfer.

He also says that in the call, disinvestment is discussed, but on his transfer request form he submitted, he made absolutely no mention of disinvesting anything.

He does not understand why the transfer was not put on hold, and why he was not contacted directly about it. Even if Suffolk Life did not say the word “SIPP”, he never said to sell anything, so the shareholding should not have been sold.

He also says that Legal & General should have noticed that the actual transfer value, including the sale of the shares, was higher than he had stated on the transfer request form. So, this should also have been raised with Suffolk Life before the transfer was completed.

The secure emails he sent to Legal & General, which gave a strong impression that he intended to sell his shareholding and transfer his whole pension fund, were sent months before his actual transfer request. He had changed his mind about selling the shareholding by then and those emails should not have been taken into account when his transfer request was eventually made.

Adjudicator’s Opinion

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Mr Y did not accept the Adjudicator’s Opinion and the complaint was passed to me to consider. Mr Y provided his further comments which do not change the outcome. I agree with the Adjudicator’s Opinion, so will only respond to the additional points made by Mr N.

Ombudsman’s decision In response to the Opinion Mr Y has reiterated his argument that at no point did he say that Legal & General should sell anything and his pension should have been treated with more care.

Legal & General simply followed Mr Y’s instructions provided on the transfer request form. These instructions did not include a request for a partial transfer or a request not to sell the shareholding within the SIPP. Therefore, I consider that legal & General paid due care and consideration to Mr Y’s request.

It was entirely reasonable for the fund to be disinvested and a full transfer to take place as this is what the transfer form instructed Legal & General to do.

I do not uphold Mr Y’s complaint.

Anthony Arter

Pensions Ombudsman 28 November 2022

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