Fidelity Self Invested Personal Pension Scheme · CAS-34152-M8J6

CAS-34152-M8J6

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Miss N

Scheme Fidelity Self Invested Personal Pension Scheme (the SIPP)

Respondent Fidelity International Ltd (Fidelity)

Outcome

Complaint summary

Background information, including submissions from the parties

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Adjudicator’s Opinion

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Miss N disagreed with the Adjudicator’s Opinion, and in response, she made further points. In summary she said:-

• Neither application form was dated, which is surprising.

• She is sure she did not complete the 2018 application form because she received Fidelity’s email of 23 August 2018 confirming how to pay additional contributions. She made the cash deposit the next day to the bank account supplied and purchased the investments on-line a few days later. There was no mention of an application form.

• The 2018 application form looked like the 2017 application form, which presumably was generated when she inputted information on screen to open the SIPP.

• The 2017 application form showed cash (she bought investments subsequently using the online buying system), while the 2018 application form showed the funds in which she eventually invested. There should be some evidence that Fidelity contacted her to request that she complete a form in 2018 and include the funds required, but there is no evidence that anyone did in the 2018 work note.

• The 2018 application form is just a screenshot of data held by Fidelity.

• Not all pension providers require the completion of an application form when adding to a pension. It is not a regulatory requirement.

In response to Miss N’s further points, Fidelity said:-

• It had already provided all available evidence to my Office. This comprised application forms previously completed by Miss N together with investment instructions.

• Expecting a payment to be applied and invested immediately into specific investments without the application form was not reasonable.

• The fact that the funds were not applied and invested would appear to be sufficient evidence that an application form was required to provide the investment instruction.

• The screenshot of an email dated 23 March 2018 at 12:20pm notified Fidelity that Miss N had submitted an application form online. The email said, “Expectation setup for £800”. Fidelity uses the word ‘Expectation’ to mean application form.

3 CAS-34152-M8J6 Such an email only gets sent to Fidelity once an individual has submitted an application form which happened in Miss N’s case in March 2018.

• An automated email was also generated and sent to Miss N on 23 March 2018 at 12:20pm. This provided her with bank details for her to send a payment to Fidelity for processing.

• Fidelity received no email notification on 4 April 2019. This is because she made a payment online without submitting an application form.

As Miss N did not accept the Adjudicator’s Opinion, the complaint was passed to me to consider. I agree with the Adjudicator’s Opinion and note the additional points raised by Miss N and Fidelity.

Ombudsman’s decision

I do not uphold Miss N’s complaint.

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Anthony Arter

Pensions Ombudsman 18 August 2021

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