"One of the UK's leading specialists in financial mis-selling…"
The Times
Pension drawdown allows you to take an income from your pension while leaving the rest of your retirement savings invested. It gives you flexibility over how much you withdraw and when.
Taking too much income, investing at an unsuitable level of risk or failing to consider the tax consequences of withdrawals can reduce the value of your pension and affect how long your savings last.
The quality of the financial advice you receive may therefore be more important than the drawdown product itself. Your adviser should recommend a retirement strategy suited to your income needs, attitude to risk, financial circumstances and long-term plans.
Good retirement advice is not a one-off recommendation. It should be reviewed and adapted as your circumstances and income needs change.
Pension drawdown can provide an effective retirement income. Problems arise when the original advice was unsuitable or the strategy was not reviewed over time.
Pension drawdown isn’t necessarily the problem. The issue is whether the advice you received was suitable for your circumstances.
Some of the most common warning signs include:
Many clients only begin to question the advice they received after seeing their pension fall in value or realising their retirement income may not last as long as they expected. They often tell us they trusted their adviser completely and didn’t realise there was a problem until years later.
Poor pension advice rarely comes down to a single recommendation. Good retirement advice is an ongoing process, with regular reviews to ensure your investment strategy, income and level of risk continue to reflect your changing circumstances.
Investment losses alone don’t mean your financial adviser was negligent. Our solicitors look beyond the outcome to assess whether the advice met the professional standards expected at the time it was given.
We assess whether the advice was suitable for your circumstances, whether the recommendations were properly documented and whether your retirement strategy was reviewed as your needs changed. We’re not looking for a perfect investment outcome. We’re looking for evidence that the advice process was sound and centred on your best interests.
When investigating a claim, we commonly look for issues such as:
One issue alone doesn’t necessarily mean your adviser was negligent. Our solicitors assess the advice as a whole, considering whether it was suitable, properly documented and reviewed throughout your retirement journey.
Request a free call back and one of our team will call you back for a no-obligation chat
Every pension drawdown case is different, but we see the same mistakes repeated time and again. Some of the most common include:
Pension drawdown can usually be accessed from the normal minimum pension age (currently 55, rising to 57 from April 2028), but being eligible to access your pension does not necessarily mean that entering drawdown at that point is appropriate. We sometimes see clients encouraged to enter drawdown earlier than necessary without properly considering whether delaying withdrawals or leaving their pension invested for longer would better support their retirement plans.
As retirement approaches, investment strategies should normally reflect a reduced capacity for loss. We regularly see portfolios remaining invested too aggressively, exposing clients to unnecessary market risk at a stage when protecting retirement income should be a greater priority.
Some clients are advised to withdraw more income than their pension can realistically sustain. Without proper cashflow planning and regular reviews, this can significantly increase the risk of pension funds running out earlier than expected.
We frequently see clients paying ongoing adviser fees despite little evidence that meaningful annual reviews ever took place. In some cases, important suitability reports are also produced after key decisions have already been made, rather than before clients had the opportunity to properly understand the advice they were receiving.
Some recommendations appear difficult to justify, involve unnecessary product changes or generate additional fees without delivering any meaningful benefit to the client.
Many clients tell us they didn’t fully understand the risks until their pension had already fallen in value or their retirement income became difficult to sustain. Good financial advice should clearly explain both the potential benefits and the possible consequences before any decision is made.
“Sometimes the best retirement advice is not to enter drawdown at all. Good financial advice isn't about recommending change—it's about recommending what's genuinely in the client's best interests.”
Recognising the warning signs is only the first step. The next question is whether the advice you received was legally negligent.
Our solicitors typically consider four questions:
Depending on the circumstances, concerns about negligent pension advice may be resolved through the adviser, the Financial Ombudsman Service or legal proceedings. Identifying the correct party is an important part of investigating your claim.
The available documents can help establish what advice you received, why it was recommended and whether it was suitable for your circumstances. Don’t worry if you don’t have every document. We can often help identify what information is available and what additional evidence may be needed.
Documents commonly used when assessing a claim include:
The documents are important, but so is what they reveal about the advice process. We commonly identify issues such as:
Taken together, the evidence helps establish whether the advice met the professional standards expected of a competent financial adviser.
There are legal time limits for bringing a claim relating to negligent pension or retirement advice, but they aren’t always straightforward.
The relevant time limit may depend on when the advice was given or when you first became aware, or could reasonably have become aware, that negligent advice had caused you financial loss.
The effects of unsuitable pension advice aren’t always obvious straight away. Some people don’t realise there’s a problem until years after the original recommendation, which is why you shouldn’t assume you’re either within or outside the legal time limits without taking legal advice.
If you think poor retirement advice has caused you financial loss, seeking legal advice sooner rather than later gives a specialist solicitor the opportunity to assess whether your claim is likely to be within the relevant limitation period and advise you on the next steps.
If we believe you have a claim, we'll investigate the advice you received, gather the evidence and identify the appropriate route for recovering your financial losses. We'll keep you informed throughout the process and explain what happens at each stage.
Making a claim shouldn’t mean taking on additional financial pressure. We offer No Win, No Fee agreements for eligible pension drawdown claims, with no upfront costs.
What This Means for You
For over 17 years, our solicitors have handled claims involving pension mis-selling and negligent financial advice, including unsuitable retirement and pension advice.
We’ve recovered more than £150 million for clients who have suffered losses following mis-sold pensions, unsuitable investments and negligent financial advice.
For pension mis-selling cases we agree to take on, we succeed in around 90% of them, giving you one of the best chances of reclaiming your retirement savings.
You won’t pay us a penny unless we win your case. Our fees are fair, transparent and fixed as a percentage of the compensation we recover for you.
We’re regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA No. 468940), providing the professional standards and accountability you would expect from a regulated law firm.
You’ll have direct contact with the same experienced solicitor throughout your claim, giving you continuity from the initial assessment through to the outcome.
Not necessarily. Investment losses alone don’t automatically mean your financial adviser was negligent. The key question is whether the advice you received was suitable for your personal circumstances, attitude to risk and retirement objectives at the time. If unsuitable advice caused you financial loss, you may have grounds to pursue a professional negligence claim.
Advice may have been unsuitable if it didn’t reflect your personal circumstances or retirement goals. For example, you may not have been warned about the risks, been encouraged to take unsustainable withdrawals, remained invested in inappropriate levels of risk, or received little or no ongoing review of your retirement strategy. A specialist solicitor can assess whether the advice met the professional standards expected of a financial adviser.
The Financial Ombudsman has upheld complaints where consumers weren’t properly informed about the tax implications of pension drawdown withdrawals as part of providing suitable retirement advice. If important tax implications weren’t properly explained and this contributed to financial loss, it may form part of a wider professional negligence claim. Whether this amounts to negligence will depend on the circumstances of your case.
Not always. Whether you should complain to your adviser first will depend on the circumstances of your case and the most appropriate way to pursue your claim. Seeking independent legal advice at an early stage can help you understand your options and avoid taking steps that may not be in your best interests.
Useful evidence may include copies of your financial advice, suitability reports, pension statements, review documents and any correspondence with your adviser. However, you don’t need to have every document before seeking legal advice. A specialist solicitor can advise what information is needed and help identify any additional evidence required to assess your claim.
Responsibility may rest with an independent financial adviser (IFA), a restricted adviser, a wealth management firm or another regulated business that provided the retirement advice. Identifying the correct party can sometimes be complex, particularly where advice has been provided over a number of years, but establishing who was responsible is an important part of assessing any claim.
Tim qualified as a solicitor in 1997 and has more than 25 years of experience advising clients on professional negligence, financial mis-selling and complex civil litigation matters. He oversees the firm’s professional negligence cases and advises on case strategy.
Tim has reviewed this page to help ensure the information about pension drawdown and negligent retirement advice is accurate, up to date and relevant to individuals considering a potential claim.
If you’re concerned that poor pension drawdown or retirement advice has caused you financial loss, speak to our specialist solicitors for a free, confidential consultation. We’ll assess your circumstances, explain whether you may have a claim and advise you on the next steps.
Provide your details to start your free eligibility check. You’ll be guided through a few short questions so we can direct you to the right specialist and assess how we can help.
You do not need legal representation to make a financial services claim. You can complain yourself at no cost and under FCA rules, the financial services provider must provide a response. If you feel this is unsatisfactory, you can complain to the statutory redress bodies, the FOS and FSCS who can award you compensation. This is a free service.
The information appearing within this website does not constitute legal advice and is provided for general information purposes only. No warranty, whether express or implied, is given in relation to such material, and we do not accept any liability for reliance on it.
Neglect Assist is a trading style of Wixted & Co Solicitors which is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) A copy of the SRA handbook can be obtained from www.sra.org.uk. Wixted & Co Solicitors, 57 Putney Bridge Road, London SW18 1NP.
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