First of all, cold calling is illegal and no reputable financial firm will contact you this way.

If anyone contacts you out of the blue and offers a free pension review then we recommend that you hang up and do not provide any of your personal details.

Sometimes, these calls can feel like the person knows you or has personal details about your pension but it’s likely they have got your information via social media platforms or bought your data from a third party.

The Scheme is now closed so as a deferred member, you will no longer earn any more service with the Scheme. However, this does not mean that your pension is ‘frozen’ and not gaining in value. In fact, many DB pensions do increase while in deferment and it’s always worth asking for an updated benefit statement so you can see this for yourself.

Again, most DB schemes will offer a valuable spouses or dependents benefit upon death, and while it’s easy to be sold on the idea that you can leave all your pension to your loved ones, in reality, you will also have to fund your own retirement. In the case of a Defined Contribution (DC) or pensions vehicles like SIPPs, there is a chance that you will use most of your pension pot to fund your own retirement. So rather than take this on face value, we would recommend that you find out what benefits are payable upon your death and then take regulated advice on this matter.

It is a legal requirement to take advice for DB transfers over the value of £30,000. This is because you are giving up a valuable guaranteed benefit. Make sure the adviser you are talking to about this is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and if you are asked to sign a declaration to ignore the advice and proceed anyway (known as being an insistent client) you need to be aware that should the transfer go wrong, you may have little or no recourse with any of the UK compensation schemes.

Please take extra caution if the adviser offers to pay for this advice on your behalf and then reimburse you on transfer. Some advisers may offer to pay for the advice but then take a higher commission fee on transfer. This practice can place undue pressure on you to transfer because in some cases, if you do not transfer, you will need to reimburse the adviser from your own pocket. So always read the small print.

There is an old saying, which is often ignored, “if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is”

If anyone is promising high returns and/or investments in areas of which you have no prior investment experience, then you should check if they are regulated by the FCA. You can do this by going to the FCA website, the details are provided below.

An FCA regulated adviser is not allowed to make recommendations to you without knowing your full financial circumstances and experience of investments. They are also held to a strict code of practice in relation to financial promotions.

We have seen lots of cases where members have been persuaded to transfer their pension by salespeople coming to their home with glossy brochures and they look and sound professional. Over the years there have been many mis-selling scandals involving storage pods, hotel resorts and hotel rooms to name a few.

A common tactic of the scammer is to coach you and to talk badly about your existing pension provider. This creates an ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation. This may lead you to ignore warnings from your current pension scheme because you now see us as the ‘bad’ guy and the new adviser is the ‘good’ guy helping you to get access to your pension.

A reputable firm or adviser doesn’t need to do this and should act professionally. They should tell you at the outset that a transfer from a DB scheme can take some time to complete because of the extra checks that are legally required. They should also tell you that there are no annual fees paid directly by members of DB schemes, so you won’t be paying any fees to the scheme if the transfer takes longer.

DB schemes provide members with a guaranteed transfer value and as long as the forms are signed and returned within that guarantee period, the value will remain unchanged.

Any delay in transfer is because the Scheme is following a robust process to protect you and your pension and not to ‘keep’ your money.

More than 80% of transfer requests are processed without any problem - we only refuse a transfer where we have serious concerns that it could be a scam.

Your data will most likely be sold and you will start to receive cold calls. Many of these adverts offer a free leaflet or information of some kind if you provide your details. If something on social media sparks your interest, you can research this yourself online without putting your personal data at risk.

If you see adverts with a celebrity endorsement of a financial product then it could be fraudulent. For example, the money expert Martin Lewis has his image and video clips being used by third parties, without his consent, to sell investment scams. Martin Lewis and other celebrities have made it clear that they don’t promote financial products online. A celebrity endorsement is used by scammers to add credibility to a scam.

If you are contacted out of the blue or cold called, make sure you check the person is who they say they are before giving away any personal information. Scammers can get hold of pieces of your personal data from various sources, so can often make you believe that they know you.

If in any doubt, don’t give any of your personal details and block the number.

If you are approached by an adviser who is not based in your country of residence, they are not allowed to provide any advice on a DB transfer without being regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). If you live in the UK, your adviser must be regulated in the UK by the FCA.