A client who protested about commission being taken from his pension without his permission and without receiving ongoing advice in return has had his complaint rejected by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
The Ombudsman ruled that, as the client's adviser - Fiscal Perspectives Independent Financial Advisers, later trading as Justamo Financial Planning - had inherited the servicing rights to the plan in 2002 without liability, it could not be held responsible for the suitability of the original advice given or any failure to make the client aware of commission payments.
This would instead have been the responsibility of the initial adviser, it said.
The Ombudsman said it was unfortunate that the client did not become aware of the commission being taken from his account until 2012, and noted that Justamo had made several attempts to contact the client, a claim the customer rejected.
In respect of receiving ongoing advice, it added that, had Mr D contacted Justamo, financial advice would have been available to him.
"I understand that [the client] feels very strongly about the fact that he was not made aware of the manner in which commission would be deducted from his plan," the Ombudsman said.
"However, Justamo cannot be held responsible for this as it did not give the advice; it only acquired servicing rights to the plan in 2002, it did not inherit liabilities. It would have been the responsibility of the initial adviser to make Mr D aware of the commission payable on the policy."
