Widow waits over a year for pension to be transferred by Hargreaves

Financial adviser Jeremy Miles, told FT Adviser about his recent experience with Hargreaves Lansdown while trying to help his client get her husband’s pension transferred to a new provider.

The late husband, who passed away April 7 2023, had two plans with Hargreaves Lansdown, an Isa and a drawdown arrangement in payment. 

According to Miles, following the provision of the death certificate, the firm “failed” to outline the deceased’s pension options until July 24 2023. 

He then requested pension policy details from Hargreaves Lansdown on October 28 2023 but said these were not provided until December 5 2023.

On October 31, Miles instructed Hargreaves Lansdown that the client wanted a switch of all investments to cash before a transfer could be made to a new provider. 

Miles had instructed the firm that his client was vulnerable and did not feel comfortable completing any forms or receiving any correspondence about the process and for everything to be sent to his firm IFS Financial Management.

However, according to the adviser the client was sent the confirmation letter directly about the investment switches rather than it being sent to him.

From December 2 2023, the adviser said he began asking for pension transfer forms to start the process of transferring out the deceased's pot, which were not provided by Hargreaves Lansdown until February 8 2024. 

According to Hargreaves Lansdown in order for a pension to be transferred, the assets first needed to be transferred to the widow’s name which required a ‘settlement of benefits’ form to be filled out. 

Miles said this form was sent back on March 8, followed by a ‘risk questionnaire’ which was returned on March 22. 

After not receiving any updates, on April 15 a complaint was raised explicitly by the adviser to Hargreaves Lansdown with the firm emailing on April 17 inviting Miles to call them to discuss the matter (seen by FT Adviser).

After calling the number provided, Miles was told “the bereavement team were a bit light” and couldn’t take calls.

On April 24, the client directly received a letter from Hargreaves Lansdown acknowledging the complaint, stating it had eight weeks to respond. 

The client also had a phone call from the bereavement department saying it hadn't received the 'risk questionnaire' form, which according to Miles was returned March 22.

The team wanted the client to do it over the phone, despite Miles instructing a few weeks prior that the client didn’t feel comfortable receiving any correspondence directly and for everything to be sent to her adviser.

FT Adviser understands the pension has still not been transferred out of Hargreaves Lansdown more than a year since the widow’s late husband died. 

Hargreaves Lansdown response 

In a letter sent to the client, seen by FT Adviser, from Hargreaves Lansdown this month, the firm detailed what had happened to cause a delay in the process.

According to the firm, when it is notified of a client’s passing and has received a death certificate, it sends out a pack which includes valuations of the accounts, along with the relevant forms required to administer the accounts. 

As pensions with Hargreaves Lansdown are held in trust and outside of a client’s estate, it falls to the firm as the trustees to make the decision as to who should benefit from the account using information that is provided to it. 

The trustees review the request for information form which is sent as part of the above pack along with the clients will, marriage certificate and expression of wishes if applicable. According to the firm it initially received the death certificate and the above mentioned pack was sent out.

However, Hargreaves Lansdown said it was “disappointed to learn” that this took longer than it should have to be sent.

In addition to this, once it had received the request for information form which was included in the pack from the client there was also a delay in passing the information to the firm's trustees which it has apologised for.

Once the above information was reviewed by trustees, Hargreaves Lansdown said on July 20 2023, it sent the relevant form to the client that would allow her to express to the firm how she would like to access her late husband’s pension funds. 

Hargreaves Lansdown said in its letter: “We did not receive the form back from you within a timeframe we would usually expect and therefore we contacted you twice to ensure we could proceed with your instructions. 

“We then received a letter of authority signed by yourself giving authority to IFS Financial Management along with an instruction to sell the investments held in [the deceased’s] pension. I was pleased to see this was instructed and we sent you confirmation of this as expected.”

Although this granted Hargreaves Lansdown the authority to sell the investments, it said it still hadn't received the 'settlement of benefits' form that would allow it to start the process of transferring the assets into the widow's name.

It said it contacted the client directly to notify her of this twice and received a letter from Miles in January making it aware that the client wanted the pension to be transferred to the new provider.

"Whilst we are conscious this may have caused frustration at the time, in order to achieve this transfer we informed you that you would first need to have the assets transferred into your name with Hargreaves Lansdown. Following which, a new settlement of benefits form was sent to proceed with your transfer request.

"We understand from your IFA that our letters to you requesting the forms be returned caused distress as you felt pressured to make a decision. We are very sorry to learn of this; whilst we send further letters in this instance to ensure there is no undue delay to the processing of the estate, we have raised your experience as feedback with the relevant senior managers,” the firm added.

Once both forms were completed and returned, Hargreaves Lansdown admitted it had not sent out a beneficiary drawdown application which was the next part of the process. 

It said: “We appreciate the confusion and additional distress asking for the questionnaire again has caused you.”

The firm confirmed a beneficiary drawdown application has now been sent to the adviser with Hargreaves Lansdown making an "exception" in this case and allowing the application to be emailed back to it. 

It has sincerely apologised for the delay and has offered the client £500 compensation. 

A spokesperson for Hargreaves Lansdown said: “We apologise for the delays [the client] has experienced and the distress caused and in recognition of this have offered compensation by way of an apology.”

alina.khan@ft.com