Claim Compensation for a Teachers Assurance FSAVC

What Was a Teachers Assurance FSAVC?

A free-standing additional voluntary contribution, or FSAVC, was a pension policy taken out with a pension company. It was separate from an employer’s occupational pension scheme. LV now provides information for policies originally provided by Teachers Assurance and lists a Teachers FSAVC among its heritage pension products.

For a teacher, the relevant comparison may have been between the Teachers Assurance FSAVC and the additional-voluntary-contribution options available through the occupational scheme. Depending on the period and scheme rules, an added-years option may also have been relevant. A different option was not automatically better; the question is whether the available choices and their costs were properly explained at the time.

How Were Teachers Advised or Enrolled?

Some educators were advised to start or increase an FSAVC while they were members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) says that, when considering AVC and FSAVC complaints, it may look at whether the consumer was told about the in-house AVC and whether the differences between the available options were explained.

A published FOS decision considered a complaint by a teacher who had been advised by a Teachers Assurance representative to take out an FSAVC. In that individual case, LV accepted that its adviser had not drawn the in-house options to the customer’s attention and made a charges-only redress offer. The Ombudsman found that offer fair and did not award anything further. It is a fact-specific example, not evidence that another FSAVC was unsuitable or that another complaint will succeed.

Why Might the Advice Have Been Unsuitable?

The FOS explains that a complaint may arise where an FSAVC was taken instead of an employer’s in-house AVC, which may have had lower charges or employer matching, or instead of buying added years in a final-salary scheme. Its approach is evidence-led: it considers the rules in force at the time, the advice records, the alternatives actually available, charges and the customer’s circumstances.

An FSAVC was not automatically mis-sold because it was separate from the employer’s scheme or because another route looks more attractive now. A fair assessment needs to ask what you knew, what you could afford, what you wanted from the pension arrangement and what the adviser explained when the advice was given. Your policy schedule, illustrations, statements, correspondence and any suitability records can all be useful.

If you still hold a Teachers Assurance policy, LV’s current Teachers Assurance and heritage-pensions information may help you obtain policy details. However, the business responsible for a historic advice complaint depends on the records and circumstances. You should identify the adviser or business that gave the advice rather than assume that LV is responsible in every case.