IFA questions Zurich retirement stance

A leading insurance firm has recently been accused of unfair treatment by local IFA Nigel Tinsdale, after he tried to obtain documentation for a client wishing to take benefits from a pension.

Mr. Tinsdale, who owns and runs Bewdley based Tinsdale Investment Management, when asked said he couldn’t believe the response from Zurich stating: "I was informed by Zurich it would take 10 working days to produce a simple quote and paperwork for my client who wished to start taking his pension. When I asked for it to be done quicker and after discussion, I was told that it could possibly take eight working days.

"This wasn’t acceptable, so I asked if I could have the paperwork by the end of the week, to which I was told that this wouldn’t be treating customers fairly as it would mean someone else would have to wait."

Following the incident it is understood Zurich will be looking in to this incident as reported in the Financial Adviser publication last month. When asked further about the incident, Mr. Tinsdale commented: “When I ring Zurich for a new business quote for a new customer I was told it would take one hour, hence why I can’t understand or equate the difference in times scales for existing Zurich policy holders”

A Bewdley resident Mr. Tinsdale has since received a response to his concerns from Zurich stating that 10 working days would be the maximum time they would expect any request to take. Known within his industry for direct speaking, Nigel Tinsdale continues to voice his concerns on a number of industry issues with his latest call to fellow IFAs to work towards changing the way the IFA industry operates of selling products for financial gain and instead focus on providing truly independent and best advice.