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Provider Delays: Should Provider Mistakes Mean Advisers Have to Go to the Back of the Queue?

ended 18. September 2025

We recently requested pension information from a provider and waited several weeks for a response. When it finally arrived, it was incomplete — key details had been omitted due to the provider’s own error.

Frustratingly, we’ve now been told we must wait a further number of working days for the missing information, treated as though it were a brand-new request. To soften the blow, the provider has backdated our ‘new’ request by a few days — but the delay remains.

This raises a wider question: when providers make mistakes, is it fair that advisers and their clients are pushed to the back of the queue?

At a time when Consumer Duty is supposed to deliver good client outcomes, shouldn’t providers prioritise fixing their own errors rather than applying standard turnaround times?

And more broadly — how can we get Britain growing when some of our largest companies are slowing others down with policies like these?

Comments welcome.

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
Dealing with providers can feel like trudging through treacle at the best of times, but when provider errors are compounded by policies like this, the impact is far worse. The result is unnecessary delays, mounting client frustration, and wasted adviser time. Surely it’s time for the FCA to step in and enforce minimum service standards so that clients get the timely outcomes they deserve.
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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
UK plc won't grow while businesses are cutting back on their services and their staff for cost saving. This is a direct impact of the Chancellors business increases. It isn't fair that things get pushed back and it has sadly become the norm. We get excited now when somebody actually does the job they are paid to do these days which is a sad state of affairs. Customer Service in the UK is an all time low.
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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
Pension providers are complete inept at delivering good customer outcomes, with a few exceptions. Most staff who work in these places dont undrstand their products and speaking to advisers on the phone means you end up with confliciting information and no sense of ownership. BDM's are not keenn to get involved if advisers are requesting servicning information becuase it doesn't hit thier bottom line. We have had to raise a series of formal complaints against providers who have either taken too long or given inaccurate information, where the customer gets a bad outcome.
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Eamonn Prendergast
Chartered Financial Adviser at Palantir Financial Planning Ltd
Long waits have become the norm. I’ve had to make multiple complaints on behalf of clients, sometimes securing compensation for the wasted time and energy. In one extreme case, I had to message the CEO directly on LinkedIn before an issue was resolved, but it should never come to that.
Providers cannot keep hiding behind excuses like Covid or ‘unusually high demand’. These are some of the largest financial companies in the country, and if they’re serious about Consumer Duty and client outcomes, they must properly train staff, resource their teams, and fix broken systems.

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Kundan Bhaduri
Entrepreneur, Investor and Landlord at The Kushman Group
This encapsulates everything wrong with Britain's service economy. Providers make mistakes, then punish advisers and clients with additional delays rather than taking responsibility for their own incompetence.

The Consumer Duty obligations are clearly being ignored when providers treat their own errors as routine administrative requests rather than urgent corrections.
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Jill Poet
CEO at Organisation for Responsible Businesses
It isn't always possible according to the type of service you require, but in general terms this problem emphasises the need to look to smaller businesses to provide the services we need.

Most small businesses take a people-first approach. You'll be treated as a person with a unique enquiry that deserves a unique response rather than a number in a queue. And oh those queues! And those pat responses that show the person you are talking to has limited knowledge and not really capable of dealing with your query appropriately.

If we truly want to get Britian growing, it's time we supported the small business community.

As E.F. Schumaker said, "small is beautiful." So let's stop lining the profits of big corporates and work with small companies that understand what 'service' really means.