Two thirds of advisers expect rise in pension scams

Around 40% of advisers forecast that that pension scamming will significantly increase with 27% of advisers predicting it will increase slightly.

This is despite the government announcing plans to ban pensions cold calling in November 2016.

Under the new plans, all calls where a business does not have an existing relationship will be banned, and firms breaching the ban will face fines of up to £500,000.

The ban will also apply to those who have inadvertently opted in to receiving third party communications.

The government estimates that approximately 250 million scam calls are made each year, with around £19m lost to pension fraud between April 2015 and March 2016.

John McCreadie, Head of Sales (UK), Momentum Pensions, said: “Advisers are concerned that retirement pots will provide rich pickings for criminals during 2017 and are worried the problem will continue to grow.

“The industry cannot simply roll over and accept this – we must act collectively to build defences against the scammers.

“The proposed helpline from TPAS is a welcome development – but we need to act decisively to nip the issues in the bud before they have a chance to develop. A strictly regulated industry, populated by providers with strong corporate governance structures, transparent and simple charging fees that interact only with regulated advisers will go a long way to ensuring scammers have a much tougher job on their hands.”