The British Steel Pension debacle was largely linked to Active Wealth (UK) Limited, a financial adviser firm.

The firm, which is no longer operating after being regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, incorrectly advised a large number of clients to transfer out of their British Steel pensions. Claims against the firm are now being dealt with by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which has paid over £12.5 million in compensation to clients who have received advice from the firm.

In most cases, these clients were introduced to Active Wealth by an unregulated introducer named Celtic Wealth, whose director is synonymous with the company in question. Active Wealth then advised the client to transfer their British Steel Pension into another scheme with investments such as New scape Global, these investments had extremely high redemption charges for the first 5 years of the investment.

This led to the Financial Conduct Authority intervening and suspending Active Wealth’s permissions in 2017, which led to a number of claims being lodged against the company, ultimately leading to its demise.