Poor admin and assumption one size fits all
My initial impression of clarity wealth was a very nice and agreeable organisation then problems occurred. I found they were unwilling to either admit mistakes had happened and work with me to resolve or explain their reasoning it was Clarity are always right and we don’t need to explain.
1. The adviser and the second person with him (it was never clear if this was a trainee or another adviser) were adamant I should start taking my final salary pension 4 years early knowing there was a 4% per year penalty rather than use other savings I had available. I really was not keen on this it went against everything I’d previously heard. I went away and calculated the loss I believe I would have suffered and asked for justification he initially tried to blame me for not asking to confirm this advice in the previous meeting which I had and told him I had. He then backpedalled and said he couldn’t advise on final salary pensions.
2. The projection given to me when analysed was that I would spend every penny I had in ISA’s easy access accounts etc before touching the PPP for draw down that clarity was taking a 1% yearly fee from. I had to go through him to get permission to get my own money on draw down so should I have had an unexpected expense maybe a car or vets bill I would have had nothing in reserve to pay it with. When I went back and said I wasn’t happy with all my capital gone he said oh you could change this and entered figures into a program that neither my partner or I could understand projected on the wall. At some point he blamed the other person for doing this. Once your capital is gone and you’re not working then that’s too late you cannot change it back.
My partner asked about the implications if I wanted to give my son a lump sum to buy a house in the future as pulling a lump sum as draw down in one go would attract a big tax implication this was brushed aside. I'm now making sure I use my tax entitlement but clarity disappointingly never advised any of this.
3. The advice was to combine 4 pensions I had into one Aviva PPP administrated by Clarity on a 1% yearly fee to which I agreed as I was told it would make more capital long term and overall lower fees than having 4 separate pension pots. I received an email from the adviser confirming all the transactions had gone ahead and all 4 pensions were now invested in the Aviva PPP. They hadn’t happened one of the smaller pot providers later contacted me and said clarity wealth repeatedly would not respond to their emails or phone calls eventually after they’d called me several times I told them to call a halt to the transfer. Over 2 months after sending the email confirming all transfers were done the adviser rang me when he realised. I told him we needed a meeting over this issue the final salary pension and the projection of spending all my reserve cash needed to be discussed as I wasn’t happy with clarity wealth. I explained what the pension provider had told me about the clarity administration not responding to them he denied this saying ridiculous not even that he would look into what had happened. I had already paid in excess of £6K for the 3 main pensions to be transferred to the Aviva PPP so I asked because of what had happened for the 2.25% fee to be waived on this very small pension which I believe was reasonable . This was denied out of hand no negotiation or even consulting his manager it felt then that it was just get as much from the client as possible. I kept this small pension running on its own and in a year, it has risen 41% so I’m glad now it didn’t transfer.
4. My partner tried to establish what proactive movement of funds was actually been carried out for the 1% yearly fee trying to compare with St James place and Hargreaves landowner that she dealt with for comparison . The answers coming back were very evasive and contradictory but it seemed that there was a yearly client clarity wealth meeting but the funds were set up as part of the 2.25% transfer fee then Clarity just left them to run regardless of how they were performing.
This was not a situation in which I felt comfortable continuing to be a client of Clarity wealth. It may suit others but it was clear my individual financial situation was not been looked my partner summed up it was one size fits all and she was shocked there was totally no engagement of my individual financial situation.
I told the adviser I would be leaving as a client because of all the issues he was extremely complacent saying he didn’t understand no one had left before he said. I paid clarity wealth I consider a lot of money the service was nowhere near what it should have been but more importantly there was no acknowledging things had gone wrong or a willingness to compromise and work with me. I no longer had faith in their administration or the adviser so I believe giving 2 stars is the correct score
