Regulator to clamp down on transfers out of final salary pension schemes

The Financial Conduct Authority wants to make it harder for people to leave final-salary pension schemes.

Do pension savers need protecting from themselves? New proposals from the government would give trustees in charge of final-salary pension schemes the power to reject requests from members to transfer their savings elsewhere if they think the new arrangement could be a poor deal.

The plans, which could come into force later this year, reflect regulators’ ongoing frustration about the large numbers of people moving money out of pension schemes where retirement income is guaranteed into arrangements offering less attractive benefits. In some of these cases, savers have received poor advice from intermediaries or new pension providers; in others, the new pension has turned out to be an outright scam.

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David Prosser
Business Columnist

David Prosser is a regular MoneyWeek columnist, writing on small business and entrepreneurship, as well as pensions and other forms of tax-efficient savings and investments. David has been a financial journalist for almost 30 years, specialising initially in personal finance, and then in broader business coverage. He has worked for national newspaper groups including The Financial Times, The Guardian and Observer, Express Newspapers and, most recently, The Independent, where he served for more than three years as business editor.