AWD Chase de Vere Wealth Management, the independent financial advisor, has been fined £1.12 million for “serious failings” on its pension advice and sales.

The Financial Services Authority, the City watchdog, said the firm had committed mis-selling in its pension transfer, pension annuity and income withdrawal business.

AWD Chase de Vere recommended products to customers who already had adequate existing pension provision, or whose attitude to risk did not match the products recommended to them, according to the FSA. The firm also failed to disclose properly the risks and costs of its pension products.

The FSA estimates that 800 customers may have received unsuitable advice in relation to 1,200 sales between February 2006 and October 2007 – about 28 per cent of transactions.

Margaret Cole of the FSA said: “Firms must treat their customers fairly by making every effort to provide them with suitable advice. This fine of £1.12 million reflects that AWD Chase de Vere failed to establish its customers’ needs and did not provide them with complete and accurate information, which resulted in a large number of mis-sales.”

The firm has apologised to its customers and says it is “in the process of identifying all the cases (of mis-selling) and taking steps to address and compensate clients for any potential loss.”

The FSA has recognised that AWD has compensated customers where appropriate and has co-operated with the investigation.

Mike Kirsch, Chief Executive Officer of AWD Group plc said: “We very much regret the regulatory lapses which occurred in the past and our new management team has worked very closely with the FSA to correct matters.”

AWD Chase de Vere was fined £165,000 by the FSA back in 2003 for a misleading promotion which failed to spell out the risks of high income and precipice bonds.

The promotion, circulated with more than 2 million copies of national newspapers and directly mailed to 236,000 people, included two of the complicated stock market-linked investments which exposed investors to big losses of capital in certain circumstances.

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