Even those of us in the profession get phone calls offering a free pension review (I have also been told that my investments have underperformed and I am entitled to compensation, my life cover was not advised properly, and my mortgage was not set up on the right rate) recently, I had this call which went like …
“Hello, I am from the pension review service, and we are phoning to give you a free review of your pension as it is probably underperforming”.
I wonder how the process would have followed through for this wonderful ‘free’ offer?
Let’s use timeshare as an example to get a feel for it…
Your precious 10 day holiday for the year in the sun, you have spent (lets say £5,000 – that is £500 a day) on a family holiday, well deserved respite from the day to day life, and you are approached to spend a day looking around a timeshare, for which they will give you €200, or a camcorder or something or other. It’s free, they’ll give me something for nothing, it’s got to be great! But you have sacrificed £500 of your holiday, even worse 10% of your relaxation and family time, which may not come around again for a whole year. To make it worse, you will be surrounded by people trying to manipulate, sleaze, smarm and bully you into making a wrong choice.
So how does this link into a ‘free’ pension review?
Simply, their sole intention is to sell you something, to manipulate you into making a decision which at best will be based on very little knowledge of you or what is important to you. They care about sales and numbers – not about you, your future or your family. In fact next summer, they may well be on the Costa del Sleaze flogging timeshares (but don’t forget to pick up your free camcorder at the end).
Always be very wary of unsolicited calls, free offers of this, free offers of that, and promises of compensation. The outcome could be far worse than messing up a day of your precious holiday, you could be messing up the rest of your life.
Together we can bring some Serenity to your life
Escaping The Bucket 