Deputy Editor's View: Advice firms named and shamed by FCA

The deputy editor's Friday Night Takeaway from 24 February

Jenna Brown
clock • 1 min read

Last week saw the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) name and shame two advice firms that made unsolicited “settlement offers” for formers members of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS).

Sheffield-based Abbey Lane made offers (if you can call them that) of £100 to 82% of its clients who were BSPS members, while Welsh outfit Estate Capital offered the slightly higher figure of £300 to 83% of its former BSPS members. The FCA was having none of it and rightly so. It said the offers were "significantly misaligned" with the average calculated redress that will be handed out under the formal redress scheme. The scheme, which began this month, will see an average £45,000 per affected BSPS former member who received unsuitable transfer advice. That's quite the increase on a t...

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