Upper Tribunal confirms lifetime bans for pension transfer pair, cuts fines after finding 18% suitability failure rate
The Tribunal confirmed dishonesty findings against both individuals and upheld the lifetime bans, but ruled the FCA had overcounted unsuitable advice and cut the fines accordingly.
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Verdict: worth reviewing for wealth managers and IFAs with pension transfer permissions. The bans stand; the reasoning on oversight and suitability standards is where the practical content lies.
The Upper Tribunal has upheld the FCA's decision to ban Richard Fenech and Heather Dunne from working in financial services following findings of dishonesty and pension transfer advice failings. The Tribunal issued two judgments: one on liability on 27 April 2026 and one on penalties on 27 July 2026.
Ms Dunne traded as an independent financial adviser under Heather Dunne Independent Financial Adviser (HDIFA), which was an appointed representative of Financial Solutions Midhurst Ltd, owned and run by Mr Fenech. Between April 2015 and June 2017, Ms Dunne advised approximately 92% of her clients to leave defined benefit pension schemes, resulting in more than £126m in transfers, including in cases where it was not in clients' best interests.
The Tribunal found that both individuals acted dishonestly by providing a backdated appointed representative agreement to the FCA. Ms Dunne also falsely claimed she had given advice to certain pension schemes before she had done so, and she failed to take proper care when giving pension transfer advice, while Mr Fenech's failing was supervisory rather than client-facing: he did not properly oversee her work.
The FCA had based both fines on a finding that all of Ms Dunne's advice breached regulatory requirements. The Tribunal disagreed, ruling that only 18% of her clients received unsuitable advice and recalibrating accordingly. It also ruled that only the income Mr Fenech earned from his relationship with Ms Dunne should count towards his fine. The result: £41,230 for Ms Dunne and £16,046 for Mr Fenech.
The fine reductions do not soften the core outcome. Lifetime bans are the harshest individual sanction available, and the dishonesty findings are unqualified. The FCA's executive director of enforcement noted that the Tribunal agreed the FCA must be able to rely on those it regulates at all times, framing the dishonesty findings as a breach of that basic trust. Both individuals have 14 days from the Tribunal's final decision to appeal.
For firms with pension transfer permissions, the supervision angle is the practical takeaway. Mr Fenech's ban rests substantially on his failure to oversee an appointed representative's advice, not on his own client-facing conduct. The decision is a prompt to review whether oversight of pension transfer specialists involves substantive review of advice quality, not only procedural sign-off.
