"Tonight, your pension under threat." "LAUGHTER" "How new pension freedoms can leave you open to being ripped off." "You should be very wary of anybody who approaches you regarding a free pension review, because, at the end of the day, they're there to make money." "And the people whose retirement dreams are ruined." "People have killed themselves, you know?" "I'm aware of that happening." "Suicides, break-ups... and yet, they just don't seem to care." "We go undercover to investigate one man whose company targets pensions to help fund a foreign property empire." "And we ask, should more be done to keep our pensions safe?" "It sounds good, well, it ain't good." "Don't do it." "It's not worth it." "Whatever your hobby, whether you want to relax or prefer something more active..." "..the perfect retirement is proving harder to achieve." "Planning for retirement is one of the biggest financial challenges we face." "We're living longer and we're staying healthier, which makes it harder to fund for even the most modest of lifestyles for when we stop working." "In April 2015, the government introduced a package of pension freedoms." "Pensioners will have complete freedom to draw down as much or as little of their pension pot as they want." "To explain the new rules, the government also introduced a free telephone advice service called Pension Wise." "'Pension Wise, set up by the government, offers free, 'impartial guidance on the options you now have.'" "What we aim to do is to try to help you understand your pension better and also to signpost you about where to go, what questions to ask and the things that you need to be aware of." "But some companies have been quick to work out that, if they too offer free advice, it could be the first step to getting their hands on people's valuable pension pots." "You should be very wary of anybody who approaches you regarding a free pension review, because, at the end of the day, they're there to make money and you need to be really clear before you accept any offer from them." "There are fears the new freedoms could trigger pensions mis-selling on a grand scale." "For the last six months, we've been investigating a call centre in Derby that offers free pension reviews." "We sent in an undercover reporter." "First stop, the classroom." "The call centre is run by a company called Lifestyle Connections." "Holly, one of the trainers, tells the class they will be calling on behalf of sister company, First Review Pension Services." "Their job is to sign people up for a free pension review." "Another trainer says their clients are offered a comprehensive range of pension options." "New recruits are told they're not allowed to give financial advice, as they're not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority." "Staff get a salary plus commission for every client they sign up for a review." "When training moves from the classroom to the call centre, our reporter picks up some tips from" "Lifestyle's quality control officer, Bobby." "It's all about keeping people on the phone." "Once the call centre gets them signed up, they're passed to" "First Review Pension Services just across the road." "Their self-employed consultants do the reviews face-to-face, but there's more to this company's structure than meets the eye." "So, it's The Resort Group, the parent company, that's really calling the shots." "It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with pensions at all." "In fact, it's a property developer with a string of resorts in Cape Verde, an emerging tourist destination off North West Africa." "Quality control officer, Bobby, who told our reporter to lie to clients, explains." "So, our reporter shouldn't tell clients that the motive for the pension review is to help fund the Resort Group's" "Cape Verde developments." "Well, they may not want you to know it, but First Review Pension Services and Lifestyle Connections are both, in fact, owned by The Resort Group." "What's more, The Resort Group describes them as their marketing and sales arm." "Pensions expert Alan Higham has advised the government on pensions policy." "We showed him our footage." "What do you think?" "Well, there's clearly no doubt that this is all about selling an investment in Cape Verde." "It's not about a proper pension review, it's not about taking your individual circumstances into account and working out what is generally best for you, it's about trying to find the best line to sell you this investment in Cape Verde." "So, who's behind The Resort Group and those luxury hotels in Cape Verde?" "When it comes down to the rest of you guys, I love you." "CHEERING" "Rob Jarrett, a former financial adviser." "Last year, his Resort Group made nearly £11 million profit." "Rob Jarrett owns the call centre, the Pension Review Service and the company that builds the swanky hotels." "Here he is with celebs Kerry Katona," "Tiny Tempeh and Ms Dynamite, launching one of his new resorts." "Everybody here I think has a close personal relation to" "The Resort Group or the development that we do in Cape Verde." "Kerry works in the call centre and as a consultant." "So, all options involve The Resort Group." "Not much of a pension review, then." "For Rob Jarrett and The Resort Group, it's about drumming up funds for his empire." "Thank you." "After four days of training at his Derby call centre, our reporter made her excuses and left." "There are set classes in the regions." "What we're hoping to do..." "Two years ago, Monica Dyer was called by First Review Pension Services." "She has multiple sclerosis." "There was a guy on the end of the phone asking me about my pension." "Did I want to change the pension to another pension?" "He was saying that, you know, "This will be" ""better off than the one that you're currently in." "It's a lot better."" "She agreed to meet a consultant from the company." "At the time, they weren't owned by The Resort Group." "It was a woman that came around to see me." "And she was talking about the transferring of the pension that I was in to this new one." "I thought it was ideal." "That was all right for me." "Her illness affects her ability to make decisions." "She says she was persuaded to transfer her £118,000 pension pot into a more risky scheme to buy two Resort Group apartments in Cape Verde." "Did the consultant mention that there might be risks attached to the pension?" "No." "Nothing at all." "No, nothing about risks." "I guess they were trying to sell it, so they wouldn't want to tell me about risks." "So I just agreed with whatever they said." "An Independent Financial Adviser recommended by a friend did his best to help." "The only thing I could think of was to just do an application for a transfer of the Cape Verde pension." "But we just kept continually hitting buffers in terms of trying to get the money repatriated from The Resort Group." "It went on for months and months and months." "Monica eventually got most of her money back, but she lost more than cash." "The pension she transferred out of was a final-salary scheme." "It has put me right off answering the phone." "Because I don't want to be caught up in that ever again." "And as I'm getting older..." "..I don't want to get caught up in this kind of predicament again." "Never, ever." "Final-salary pensions guarantee retirement incomes, as Marion will now explain." "A final-salary pension gives you an income in retirement based on a proportion of the salary you were on in the job that provided that pension." "Anybody promoting the idea that you should take one of these things, transfer it and invest it in some overseas property scheme, that has warning bells ringing all over for me." "I wouldn't do it." "We wanted to see for ourselves what a consultation with First Review Pension Services looks like." "Our man also has a final-salary pension." "He gives them a call." ""First Review Pension Services." ""This is Holly speaking." "How can I help?"" "It's Holly, one of the women who trained our undercover reporter." "Can you tell me a bit about what you do?" "What the service is?" "Right." "She wants our man to sign a letter of authority, giving access to his pension details." "She sends a courier the following day." "Sure." "That's what they said." "Two weeks later, it's time for our free pension review." "We've rigged a house with secret cameras." "I'm listening upstairs with pensions expert Alan Higham." "Bruce Nicholas, the consultant for First Review Pension Services, is running late." "(His parking.)" "(Looks like he's paying his parking.)" "(Oh, right.)" "Parking sorted, let the review begin." "Bruce is NOT a regulated financial adviser and doesn't claim to be." "He shouldn't offer any investment advice." "But he wastes little time telling our man what he thinks of his final-salary pension." "I hope he's joking!" "Right." " His pension will keep pace with inflation." " Yeah." " He's totally being negative about it." " Yeah, yeah." "Final-salary pension well and truly dismissed," "Bruce reckons he has something better up his sleeve." "He's suggesting our man leave his pension and transfer the lump sum into a Self-Invested Personal Pension, or SIPP." "Over to Sonia." "A Self-Invested Personal Pension, or SIPP, is a personal pension plan which enables the individual to choose where the savings are invested." "Our man has £48,000 in his final-salary pot." "Bruce's plan would involve half going into regulated UK investments and the rest into a portfolio, including overseas property." "Bruce claims the overseas investments will grow by 10% a year." "But how risky are they?" "It's a bit riskier than he's saying." "Bruce says the UK-based investments will grow by the same amount." "You can't get 10% returns in a cautious fund." "If you want 10% returns, you have to take a lot of risk." "Now it's time for Bruce to assess our man's financial circumstances and his attitude to risk." "It involves filling in a lengthy, detailed form." "But Bruce has a suggestion to speed things up." "Right, um..." "That's very leading." "He should be assessing his needs, not picking the one that will get through the advice process." "Bruce says he'll send the form to be assessed by an Independent Financial Adviser." "Take it away, Margaret." "An Independent Financial Adviser, or IFA, is a personal company authorised to give investment advice that's unbiased, comprehensive and in the customer's best interests." "The best practice would be that the man who's advising him on this should be discussing this with him, not an intermediary, trying to sell something." "I would be horrified if I was the adviser if this is how this information had been completed." "I'd refuse to advise." "After nearly two hours, Bruce confirms his connection to Rob Jarrett's Resort Group." "Job done, Bruce, the man who's paid on commission to flog Resort Group investments, heads off." "All right, then." "Take care." "Nice to meet you, Bruce." " And you." " All right, cheers." "Bye-bye." "Stuart Dixon is a police officer from Northumberland." "He fears he's lost his final-salary pension after inviting an unregulated consultant into his home for a pension review." " So, you were sitting around this table?" " Yep." "Exactly the same place." " What did you say to them?" " I was very keen to be able to access the pension at 55." "That was one point that I was happy with." "And, obviously, that was what was getting advertised." "The consultant was Graham Meikle, from a different company," "Viva Costa International in Sunderland." "He was very relaxed and his role was to get all my financial details." "And I filled in what we call a rigorous assessment, asking about what your risk-value was to money." "And I remember clearly saying, "low", on that sort of money." "And also, about what my financial circumstances were." "He said we'd have to find an IFA, we've got a bank of these that we use." "We'll find one appropriate for you who will then look at your figures and make a decision for you." "Stuart didn't have any direct contact with an Independent Financial Adviser." "I was just told that the IFA company had found me a scheme that was appropriate to me and then, you know, this is what it would be, go ahead with that." "Stuart signed papers to transfer his £112,000 pot, and a form saying he was a sophisticated investor." "Soon afterwards, he wished he hadn't." "I got all my paperwork out and went through it with a fine-tooth comb." "And I really did, first of all, think," ""Oh, well, I'm in a high-risk scheme,"" "which I shouldn't have been." "Stuart contacted the Pensions Regulator." "An investigation into the scheme discovered it had bought four apartments in a Resort Group development in Cape Verde." "It ruled that neither these, nor any of the other overseas investments were suitable for the scheme." "So far, Stuart hasn't been able to get his money back." "We're no further forward in knowing what the value of our pension is, if it's worth anything." "I've asked to try and transfer it to a legitimate scheme, with any assets left, which has fallen on deaf ears." "Viva Costa International told us..." "It's five weeks since our man had a visit from Bruce Nicholas, the consultant from First Review Pension Services." " He's back." " Yeah, yeah, yeah," "I've been very busy lately." " Have you?" " Very busy." "His plan's changed." "He now wants half our man's pension to go to The Resort Group's property fund." "No." "But he has a problem." "The Independent Financial Adviser's report says our man's final-salary pension should stay put." "If he transfers into other investments, they're unlikely to grow enough to give the same guaranteed income." "What does Bruce think?" "Right." "Our man wants time to think it over, but Bruce is going nowhere." "Alrighty." "Well..." "When he thinks he may leave empty-handed, he changes tack." "Our man has told Bruce his wife works in the city." "Perhaps there's another way he can flog Resort Group investments?" "Yeah." "Right, OK." " All right?" " All right." "He revealed himself as a salesman." "He did." "He said he was getting 7% commission on selling cash investments in The Resort Group." "Perhaps he's also getting a 7% commission for introducing this business." "And if he is really doing the thick end of £900,000 in a week, that's a lot of money to be had." "And therein lies the motivation." "And that's yet another reason not to do it." "The sales pitch even continues as he heads for the door." "On 25th June, Panorama asked The Resort Group for a statement." "It replied..." "It also said it decided in February that First Review and Lifestyle Connections would stop taking on new business after 30th June." "First Review Pension Services and Lifestyle Connections said..." "Which is..." "We wanted to talk to the Department for Work and Pensions, the Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Pensions Regulator about the results of our investigation, but none of them were available for interview." "The Department for Work and Pensions have since said they're committed to protecting all pension savers, including those seeking to access their pension freedoms." "But, in reality, we're largely on our own." "We think the biggest protection is just raising customer awareness and to get people to do due diligence into the company that they're doing business with." "It sounds good, but it ain't good." "Keep your pension." "Don't do it." "It's not worth it." "Nearly 250,000 people have taken advantage of the new freedom to take control of their pensions." "But when it comes to protecting yourself from being ripped off, the warning signs are all there." "You've just got to know how to spot them."