Barnett Waddingham website
Barnett Waddingham wants pension trustees to have the ability to block transfers to suspected fraudulent pension liberation schemes.
It is estimated thousands of people have transferred up to £400m of savings into high-risk schemes.
Many of these schemes are accredited by HM Revenue and Customs, meaning consumers think they are legitimate. Other times, agents have been used with names similar to well-known financial advisers.
Spam text messages relating to reclaiming pensions have more than tripled in the past six months and there has been similar growth in cold calls, according to the Information Commissioner's Office.
Ollie Clymo, associate administrator at Barnett Waddingham, said: "On the one hand The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is encouraging employee pension scheme trustees to stop members from transferring their funds into suspected liberation schemes but on the other no laws appear to exist to empower trustees to prevent them from doing so.
{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}
"An urgent change in the law is required to protect unsuspecting scheme members from being victims of fraud.
"Cash strapped pension scheme members are easy targets for these companies but if they are aged under 55 they will come in for a nasty shock when the HMRC demands as much as 55 per cent of their fund for drawing benefits early."
He suggested it would be useful if TPR published a list of liberation schemes and clarity on what trustees could do to stop scheme members transferring.
• Want to receive a free weekly summary of the best news stories from our website? Just go to home page and submit your name and email address. If you are already logged in you will need to log out to see the e-newsletter sign up. You can then log in again.
