Friends Life Personal Pension Plan (PO-9743)

Ombudsman’s Determination and reasons

Mr Y’s complaint is upheld and to put matters right Friends Life should pay Mr Y financial compensation for the loss he has suffered and the distress and inconvenience caused by its error.

My reasons for reaching this view are explained in more detail below.

Complaint summary

Mr Y’s complaint is summarised as follows:

•  Mr Y was provided with incorrect information when he contacted Friends Life to request drawdown and a cash lump sum from the Plan.
• He says the incorrect information caused undue delay and prevented him from accessing his benefits from the Plan.
• Friends Life acknowledged that Mr Y was not told that he had a small window between 27 March 2015 and 6 April 2015, to go into drawdown.. It apologised to Mr Y and calculated that his loss amounted to £460 and also offered compensation of £300.
• Mr Y did not accept the payment from Friends Life and believes his losses amount to £4,775, (which figure was derived from as a loss of market value on the entire fund over a different period of time).