The Financial Conduct Authority has banned Denis Lee Morgan of Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre Limited (in liquidation) (PMC) from advising any customers on pension transfers and pension opt outs, and from holding any senior management function in a regulated firm.
Mr Morgan demonstrated a lack of competence in his oversight of PMC’s Pension Transfer advice process between 8 June 2015 and 7 December 2017.
This had a particular impact on customers between August and November 2017, when PMC advised an average of 65 people customers a month – largely members of the BSPS. Mr Morgan was either the primary adviser or the Pension Transfer Specialist on all these files, which meant he was ultimately responsible for the quality of advice.
In most cases, Mr Morgan failed to consider the customers’ financial situation, retirement needs, their attitude to risk or that transferring would be in their best interests. This meant people in a vulnerable position did not get the quality of advice they needed to make an informed decision.
Therese Chambers, joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight the FCA said:
'People depended on Mr Morgan to provide them with suitable advice on one of the most important decisions of their life. His incompetence put their retirement funds at unnecessary risk, while earning over £2 million in fees for his firm, which he didn’t deserve.
'Where advisers fail to take reasonable steps to ensure the advice they provide is suitable for customers, we will take action to prevent them harming other customers.'
PMC has already been fined £2,354,331 for unsuitable advice to customers to transfer out of the BSPS and other defined benefit pension schemes.
Any customers who were advised to transfer should contact the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to see if they are owed redress.
Notes to editors:
- Final Notice for Denis Lee Morgan (PDF)
- Final Notice: Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre Limited (PDF)
- British Steel Pension Scheme – our approach to enforcement
- The total value of the transferred funds on which PMC gave advice was approximately £123 million, with an average transfer value per customer of approximately £293,000 (£314,000 for British Steel Pension Scheme members).
- As of 30 November 2022, the FSCS has upheld 213 claims against PMC and paid out over £13.3 million in compensation.
- The overall FSCS uphold rate in relation to Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre was 88%. In 80 cases (38%), the FSCS awarded the claimant the maximum compensation available of £85,000. Had it not been for the compensation limit of £85,000, the total compensation payable to customers would have been approximately £14.6 million.
- Find out more information about the FCA.