The UK Financial Conduct Authority on Monday censured Lighthouse Advisory Serviced Ltd on Monday for giving unsuitable advice, but refrained from fining Quilter PLC.

Lighthouse Advisory is a subsidiary of Quilter Financial Planning Ltd, which is a subsidiary of London-based wealth manager Quilter.

The authority explained it did not impose a fine as Quilter paid £23.2 million to Lighthouse customers affected by Lighthouse’s unsuitable advice. Between April 2015 and April 2019, Lighthouse gave unsuitable advice to people looking to transfer out of defined benefit pension schemes, including to members of the British Steel Pension Scheme.

‘Lighthouse’s advisers did not challenge BSPS members’ reasons for transferring or properly consider alternatives to meet their retirement objectives. In some cases, they failed to provide evidence as to why a transfer would be in members’ best interests. As a result of these failures 53% of advice provided to BSPS members from April 2015 to April 2019 was unsuitable – higher than industry average unsuitable BSPS advice levels (46%),’ the FCA said.

However it said that Quilter having paid £23.2 million to affected customers, plus its offering of an extra £440,000 ‘is far in excess of the fees Lighthouse received for the unsuitable advice,’ and refrained from imposing a fine on Quilter, adding that the company ‘provided very high levels of cooperation to the FCA during the investigation’.

Quilter shares rose 1.0% to 85.80 pence each on Monday at midday in London, but fell 0.5% to R 20.40 in Johannesburg.

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