Pensions - Articles - Stamping out pension liberation firms

 “It’s welcoming news that government agencies are acting behind the scenes and starting to close down pension liberation firms who have scammed people out of thousands of pounds of their hard-earned savings. But much more needs to be done and the government and regulators have to be seen to act quickly to protect people and stop pension liberation firms being set up in the first place.

 “Simply preventing directors of these firms setting up new firms is a totally inadequate response; much greater sanctions to act as a deterrent are urgently needed. The government and regulators need to work together with the pension industry to come up with workable measures to protect people from scammers.

 “Unfortunately ultra-low interest rates and volatile stock markets open up another opportunity for scammer firms to tempt people to move their pension investments overseas or into highly unusual and risky investments with the promise of unrealistically higher returns.”