Vintage Investment Services – FCA Bans Advisers and FSCS Pays Out £1m in Claims

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has paid out more than £1 million in compensation to former clients of Vintage Investment Services, a Stockton-on-Tees adviser firm that was declared in default in January 2023. The firm’s collapse has left many clients, including steelworkers who transferred out of the British Steel Pension Scheme, counting the cost of advice they should never have received.

Vintage Investment Services (FRN 142806) held FCA authorisation and provided advice on a range of financial products including pensions, investments, insurance and mortgages. An FSCS investigation identified serious problems with the firm’s pension transfer advice, particularly in relation to defined benefit schemes including the BSPS.

In November 2024, the FCA announced that it had banned two of the firm’s advisers, Steven Hodgson and Paul Adams, from advising clients on pension transfers and opt outs. As part of the settlement, both men agreed to contribute to the FSCS compensation fund, Hodgson £32,700 and Adams £53,200, to help towards redress owed to victims. The FCA found that both had poorly advised clients to transfer out of defined benefit schemes without adequate suitability assessments.

The human cost of this type of mis-selling is severe. A defined benefit pension provides a guaranteed income for life, an asset that, once transferred away, is gone for good. Clients who gave up that security on the advice of Vintage Investment Services may now face a retirement far less comfortable than the one they had earned.

If you received advice from Vintage Investment Services or Vintage and believe that advice was unsuitable, our team can review your case at no cost to you. We have specialist experience in British Steel Pension Scheme claims and will pursue every available avenue to recover what you are owed.