Year + product analysis

Pensions and Annuities complaints in 2021

A curated public analysis of Pensions and Annuities in 2021, combining annual and product-level signals from the published Financial Ombudsman decision corpus.

Page summary

807 published FOS decisions in Pensions and Annuities during 2021, with upheld-rate context, firm concentration, complaint themes, and representative cases.

Published decisions

807

Decision volume in this year-product slice

Upheld rate

47.8%

386 upheld decisions

Latest published decision 30 Dec 2021

Published decisions

807

Decision volume in this year-product slice

Upheld rate

47.8%

386 upheld decisions

Leading firm

The Prudential Assurance Company Limited

58 decisions

Leading complaint theme

Delay In Claim Handling

78 tagged decisions

Pensions and Annuities in 2021

807 published decisions in the corpus sit in Pensions and Annuities for 2021. 47.8% of those decisions were upheld, which makes this a strong public cross-section for understanding how one product behaved in one specific year.

The Prudential Assurance Company Limited is the most visible firm inside this year-product slice, with 58 published decisions.

  • 2021: 807 decisions, 47.8% upheld
  • Leading complaint theme: Delay In Claim Handling
  • Leading precedent signal: Cobs

Firm concentration and issue profile

The Prudential Assurance Company Limited, Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited, Portal Financial Services LLP, and others are the firms most often associated with Pensions and Annuities complaints in 2021. This gives a much tighter public view than the standalone year or product pages alone.

delay in claim handling, fraud or scam concern, communication failure, and others are the strongest complaint-theme signals in this year-product combination.

  • The Prudential Assurance Company Limited: 58 decisions, 19.0% upheld
  • Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited: 53 decisions, 37.7% upheld
  • Portal Financial Services LLP: 46 decisions, 93.5% upheld
  • ReAssure Limited: 35 decisions, 17.1% upheld
  • Phoenix Life Limited: 31 decisions, 22.6% upheld

Handling implications and precedent context

The advisory layer for Pensions and Annuities points to recurring handling implications here, including review cobs precedent (appears in 0.9% of cases), review fsma precedent (appears in 0.8% of cases), review prin precedent (appears in 0.7% of cases), and others.

There is no strong “what loses” signal exposed for this product at the current advisory granularity.

  • Leading complaint theme: Delay In Claim Handling

Representative cases

Recent published decisions in this slice

5 examples shown

DRN-253969130 Dec 2021Upheld

Cowley & Miller Independent Financial Services Limited · Pensions and Annuities

DRN-2539691 The complaint Mrs M complains that due to delays caused by Cowley & Miller Independent Financial Services Limited (Cowley & Miller) she received a lower transfer value for her occupational pension scheme benefits than she would otherwise have done. What happened It appe... (5 pages)

View source decision
DRN-315052330 Dec 2021Not upheld

True Potential Investments LLP · Pensions and Annuities

DRN-3150523 The complaint Ms H complains that True Potential Investments LLP (TPI) delayed the transfer of her Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) to another provider. She said it caused her a financial loss. What happened Ms H moved her pension plan held with another provider into a SIP... (3 pages)

View source decision
DRN-314958428 Dec 2021Not upheld

SG Kleinwort Hambros Bank Limited · Pensions and Annuities

DRN-3149584 The complaint Mrs P and Mr P (‘the complainants’) say the private banking, portfolio management and e- banking services they received from SG Kleinwort Hambros Bank Limited (‘SG’) between May 2018 and December 2019 (‘the complaint period’) were below the standard they were enti... (7 pages)

View source decision
DRN-316638527 Dec 2021Not upheld

Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited · Pensions and Annuities

DRN-3166385 The complaint Mr S complains that Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited (‘Aviva’) misled him about how much his pension would be worth at retirement. What happened Mr S took out a pension with Aviva in 1984 through an independent financial adviser (‘IFA’). Mr S recently received... (2 pages)

View source decision
DRN-260205824 Dec 2021Not upheld

Quilter Financial Planning Solutions Limited · Pensions and Annuities

DRN-2602058 The complaint Mr C complains that he has suffered financial loss due to the poor level of service provided by his independent financial adviser (IFA), Quilter Financial Planning Solutions Limited trading as Positive Solutions. I have referred to the business as Quilter in the r... (5 pages)

View source decision