In 2008, the FSA published its findings following a thematic review of the quality of pension switching advice.  As a result of this, the FSA produced a pension switching advice suitability assessment template and suggested that firms may wish to undertake a review of past sales to determine if historic advice was suitable.   The FSA have indicated that it will be carrying out further assessments on this issue in 2009.

Firms should therefore be:

• Reviewing the FSA assessment template and notes against their current file review standar
• Reviewing the FSA assessment template and notes against their suitability report for pension transfers and identify any additions/amends required
• Depending on the controls in place, consider a review using the FSA assessment template of a representative sample of historic sales to identify any quality advice issues.
• Remediating any historic advice issues. 
• Summarising and distributing to all advisers the assessment template and note
• Identify any training needs for the advisers in this area and undertaking/recording the assessment in their T&C records.

Further information on pension switching is available directly from the FSA website.  If you have any further questions or require assistance, please feel free to contact us.