Advice on Pension Bond

hellboy99

I had €14k from a pension scheme that I got upon leaving work, I transfered the money to my bank at the start of December 2006 to a Pension Bond scheme, I signed all the paperwork and that was it done so I thought.
Since then I never heard anything about it nor did I get anything in the post, so I rang the bank about 2 weeks ago to see how my investment was doing. Turns out my money is still sitting in the bank and the bond scheme was never finally set up.
All I got was sorry, no explanation as to why it wasn't set up and was told it would be done straight away and that I would get documention in the post in the next day or so. I got no post so I rang the bank again on Friday and it still hasn't be done :mad:

What do I do ?

BuffyBot

Advice: stop phoning, go and see someone immediately

ircoha

Paradoxically u might actually be better off that they fcuked up as pension funds took a bath in 2007:D

What were the investmnet decisions associated wiith the bond?

I presume u have copies of all paperwork

Whose bank account was the money sitting in? urs or theirs?

If theirs, you need to be compoed for the loss of interest: look for the ECB rate, with no DIRT as if it were in the PB the return would be gross, not net of Dirt

hellboy99

My money was to be split into 5 different investments, as for paperwork I never got anything from the bank, all I have is from my previous pension and a record of the money been transfered to the bank, so it's the banks fault. Where the money is no one at the minute knows, which is worrying and I'll explain why in a moment.

Went to the bank today and was told no one was there over pensions and to come back on Wendesday, I was asked as to what the matter was so I explained.
When I rang two weeks ago and spoke to the guy that was suppose set up my pension he said he was no longer in that department, today in the bank I told the customer service girl this and she told me that he still works in the pension department and never left it.

When I heard that I decided to go home and ring their head office in Dublin. The person I was talking to was very helpful, I told her what happened and what I was told in the bank, she replied that as far as she knew, the guy in my bank is still over the pensions and even if he wasn't thats no excuse as to why it wasn't set up. I was told that the whole matter would be investigated and that myself and herself wanted answers and that I will hear more this week about it. She also said that if the bank is at fault I will have interest backdated onto the money with no tax.

As for where the money is at the minute no one knows, which is worrying, because there was a clause with my previous policy that if the money was not set up into another policy or scheme within a set amount of time it would automatically go into a default pension scheme were I would have no control over the investment.
What happens if this occured I don't know.

broker2008

I wouldn't deal with the bank for a start. Call on Wednesday and tell them you are not proceeding. Go elsewhere for Personal Retirement bond or Buy Out Bond.

orbital83

The practice here would be to backdate your investment to the date you paid in the money and you should push for that (assuming the value has risen since that date!!)
Contact the ombudsman if nothing is forthcoming.

broker2008

Splitting your 14k into 5 funds is dubious too. There are plenty of things that could have delayed the investment, your previous employer/trustees might have delayed signing the discharge forms from the original pension, delay in processing the new buy out bond due to Christmas. The main issue is that Hewitts or whoever is administering the old scheme may very well have invested the proceeds into an Irish life bond if there was significant time delay. This would of course assume that cheque was not sent to the bank's life company. if the scheme was been wound up, you may be able to transfer to PRSA anyway.