Legal General Stakeholder Pension Scheme · CAS-29920-N2C8

CAS-29920-N2C8

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Mr R

Scheme Legal & General Stakeholder Pension Scheme (the Scheme)

Respondents Legal & General (L&G)

Outcome

Complaint summary

Background information, including submissions from the parties

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Adjudicator’s Opinion

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Mr R did not accept the Adjudicator’s Opinion and the complaint was passed to me to consider. In contesting the Opinion, Mr R has argued that:

• He did not refer to the Guide before placing his sell order, as he was not advised to do so, and he assumed the Valuation point for the PMC Fund was the same as for the Original Fund.

• It would be unreasonable to expect that the Valuation point for the PMC Fund might be set at a time before the US markets opened, as the fund price would be based solely on market data from the previous day. This would enable investors to place sell orders which would ultimately be based on prices from the previous day, in full knowledge of the previous day’s performance.

• He would have expected L&G to have informed him that the Valuation point was different for the PMC Fund, in its letter dated 24 July 2018.

• He has provided an extract of a call recording between himself and L&G from 28 December 2018. In this call, he asked the representative about fund prices for a UK fund and the PMC Fund for 27 December 2018. He then asked whether those prices were based on 12 pm and 3 pm respectively, which indicated he believed the PMC Fund had a Valuation point of 3 pm.

• In November 2019, L&G wrote to Mr R regarding a further bulk switch, due to take place in December 2019. It said his remaining holdings in the PMC Fund would be transferred to the L&G PMC North America Equity Index Fund G17 (the New PMC Fund). However, his transaction history no longer refers to the PMC Fund and L&G has since said that the bulk switch in December 2019 was a renaming. He believes this is evidence that the PMC Fund was closed as the Valuation point was inappropriate.

• He remains unsure as to how fund prices are calculated for the PMC Fund, and believes a reasonable outcome on his complaint cannot be reached without this knowledge.

Mr R’s further comments do not change the outcome. I agree with the Adjudicator’s Opinion and so I will only respond to the additional points raised by Mr R.

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I do not uphold Mr R’s complaint. If he wishes to accept L&G’s offer, he should contact it directly.

Anthony Arter

Pensions Ombudsman 20 July 2021

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