THE SITUATION
Nigel Vine, from West Sussex, served as a Fireman in the Airforce, from June 1978 to November 1988. In June 1993, he came across a newspaper advertisement from Braemar Financial Planning (BFP) that claimed, “you can unlock money from your pension.” As far as
Mr Vine is concerned and without his knowledge, his Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) with a value of £8,743.93 was transferred to Scottish Equitable (SE) now managed by Aegon UK.
A Money and Me Solicitors (MMS) Facebook advert about ex-servicemen who may have transferred out of the AFPS prompted Mr Vine to contact us. At the time he was uncertain about the chances of the claim’s success or the amount of money he may have lost.
However, with nothing to lose (as MMS operates a no win, no fee arrangement) he asked us to pursue his case.
OUR APPROACH
MMS contacted all the relevant parties and collected significant evidence, justifying the submission of a complaint. In March 2023, Sesame Limited (acting on behalf of Braemar Financial Planning) rejected our complaint, as they considered it was time-barred. MMS was dissatisfied with the response and escalated the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), where it was eventually upheld, with Sesame Limited being found to be liable.
THE OUTCOME
The Financial Ombudsman Service instructed Sesame to carry out a financial loss assessment, which was finalized in August 2024. Thanks to the experience and resilience of MMS with this type of claim, another successful outcome was achieved for our client, as Mr Vine was awarded £28,052.96 in compensation.
It should be noted that the claim had no impact on his personal pension arrangements with Aegon UK.
Mr Vine expressed his satisfaction with the outcome and told us, “If it wasn’t for Money and Me Solicitors determination, I would have accepted the rejection from Sesame, unaware of the other available avenues.” He further remarked, “I had no idea that I was wrongly advised and so wouldn’t have pursued a claim on my own.”
