Human Impact of the Hartley Pensions Case and ShareSoc’s Role

The FT reports on the impact of the Hartley Pensions case on Hartley’s clients: https://www.ft.com/content/3e4bbd98-7d99-4dce-93eb-2c747aad1ce5 

It’s been a nightmare for clients since Hartley went into Administration in July 2022. 

ShareSoc provided heavy support to Hartley clients over the last year and as part of the Administrator’s client committee. 

In the comments on the FT article someone asked: “What process is used to ensure that the administrator fees (c.£2k per pension pot released) are reasonable?”. In the absence of FSCS support, ShareSoc has been battling with this issue for the last year. Ultimately, without FSCS support, this would have had to be resolved in court. The typical proposed figure was more like £4k, not £2k and in some cases over £20k per pot. 

Now that the FSCS has finally changed tack, it will be their responsibility to negotiate reasonable costs with the Administrator, as ShareSoc lobbied for all along. Incredibly sad for Hartley clients that a year was wasted whilst the FSCS reached this conclusion. 

Once this matter is finally fully resolved, ShareSoc will press for a post-mortem review of FCA and FSCS actions, to ensure that this nightmare doesn’t recur. 

One comment
  1. Sunil Chadda says:

    Well done and a BIG thank you to ShareSoc.

    Our regulator has gone. It has been completely and utterly captured by industry.

    This is yet another Kafkaesque Post Office scandal and more regulatory failure.

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