FCA bans adviser over pension transfer failings

The FCA has banned Denis Lee Morgan of Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre (PMC) after its investigation found that he demonstrated a "lack of competence in his oversight" of PMC’s pension transfer advice process between June 2015 and December 2017.

Morgan has been banned from advising any customers on pension transfers and pension opt outs, and from holding any senior management function in a regulated firm.

The regulator says his conduct had a particular impact on customers between August and November 2017 when PMC, which is now in liquidation, advised an average of 65 people customers a month – largely members of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS). 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, the FCA says 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.

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.

Earlier this week, the FCA fined an adviser £106,000 for poor pension transfer advice relating to the BSPS.

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."