Mrs S came to It IS Your Money through our website back in August 2021 to find out if she had been mis-sold her pension. We gained as many details as we could from Mrs S and it appeared she had a Free Standing Additional Voluntary Contribution (FSAVC) policy but no longer had any paperwork. We did an information request to Aviva who had previously bought Colonial Mutual. Two months later after chasing them we finally received information that it was a Rainbow Plus Plan starting in 1994. These Rainbow Plans were very often mis-sold to teachers.
We were then able to send off a strong letter of complaint to Aviva, who then requested a questionnaire asking about the client’s circumstances at the time they client took out the pension. After a detailed conversation with the client, we got all the information needed and after sending it to Mrs S for signature we sent it on to Aviva.
Unsurprisingly Aviva rejected the complaint saying it was the suitable product for her. We strongly disagreed with this and with the client’s agreement we took the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). We made the client aware that taking the case to the FOS can take several months but we manage the entire process so she was able to just sit back and wait.
We only take cases to the FOS when we feel confident that we know the provider is wrong and that we can win the case. We will send all the information needed to the FOS and let them investigate and wait for their outcome.
After eight months and a lot of toing and froing with further questions the FOS upheld this case and awarded Mrs S a total of £9305.36.
The client was over the moon and said in her review: Personally I didn’t have the time or the knowledge to see this through myself and the compensation awarded was nonetheless appreciated.
If you think you may have had an FSAVC please click below and our team will find out for you.