Ombudsman rejects complaint Friends misled pensioner

The Pensions Ombudsman has found in favour of Friends Life after a consumer had complained it misled him about the nature of its treatment of additional voluntary contributions (AVCs).

The complainant, Mr M Evans, alleged that the administrator of his scheme, Aon, failed to tell Friends Life to change the investment strategy of his AVC fund in light of his decision to retire early.

However, the Ombudsman ruled that Evans was not misled by Friends and that Aon was not responsible for informing Friends of his retirement plans.

Evans had a normal retirement date in his Friends scheme of December 2015, when he will be 65.

In 2007, he attended a seminar at his workplace with Winterthur Life, later taken over by Friends, to discuss his pension.

Evans asked the Winterthur representative, referred to in the Ombudsman's notes as Ms D, how Winterthur would manage his AVC investments if he retired earlier than 2015.

Evans alleges Ms D told him the AVC investment would automatically be moved to a cash account in this case.

He also said he told Ms D he intended to retire by 2010 at the latest.

Evans said in his complaint to the Ombudsman that because of this initial conversation, he expected Friends to act on his wishes, even though he later failed to inform the insurer of his revised retirement date in subsequent paperwork.

However, Evans' AVC investments were not moved until he informed Friends in scheme documents, via Aon, of his new retirement date in February 2009.

The Ombudsman Tony King, pictured, ruled that there was no evidence Ms D had told Evans to fill out his paperwork incorrectly.

He also ruled that it was Evans' responsibility to clearly inform Friends of his retirement plans and so neither Friends nor Aon was at fault.