Checking an Adviser Is Legitimate

Before you act on any advice about your pension — a transfer, a switch, a new investment, anything that moves your money — there's one habit worth building above all others: independently verify who you're actually dealing with. It sounds obvious, but it's the single step most pension scam victims skip, often because a confident manner, official-looking paperwork, or a familiar-sounding company name makes checking feel unnecessary. It rarely takes more than a few minutes to verify they are FCA authorised, and it can be the difference between a sound decision and an irreversible mistake. Remember, too, that cold calling about pensions has been illegal in the UK since January 2019, so an unexpected call or message about your pension is itself worth treating with caution before anything else happens. This hub brings together the practical tools for checking an adviser properly: the official FCA (the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK's financial regulator) register, the FCA's ScamSmart checker, the direct questions worth asking before you transfer, and a full round-up of the red flags to watch for. Each guide below is short, specific, and built to be used in the moment you need it — ideally before you sign anything, not after.

Two of the tools covered below — the FCA register and ScamSmart — are run directly by the regulator, entirely free to use, and take only a few minutes each, yet they remain surprisingly underused simply because most people don't know how to search them properly or what the results actually mean. The guides in this hub walk through both in plain, practical detail: not just where to find them, but how to read what they tell you, and what to do if something doesn't add up. Alongside those two checks, you'll find a straightforward list of questions worth asking any adviser before transferring, and a comprehensive round-up of the warning signs that show up again and again in real pension scams. Together, these four guides give you a genuinely thorough way to verify who you're dealing with, without needing any specialist financial knowledge of your own.