A major pensions 'unlocking' firm which used TV advertising - Kings (FRN 197285) - has been declared as failed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Kings ‘unlocked’ over £82m in pensions from hundreds of pension savers enticed to use the firm which ran a campaign of TV and other advertisements later judged to be non-compliant.

The FSCS move opens the door to more ex-clients to claim compensation.

The FSCS said so far it had received 21 claims against the firm, all for pensions advice. So far 17 have been unsuccessful, 1 has been upheld and 3 are in progress.

Based in Kent, Kings advertised extensively on TV and persuaded thousands of clients to ‘unlock’ their pensions to 'release' money from the pension pots.

From December 2001 to June 2004, some 2,518 customers were referred to Kings which ‘unlocked’ pensions with a combined fund value of £82.76m.

Of these customers, at least 1,237 initially contacted Kings via an appointed rep firm called Regal Partners as a result of “non-compliant” television advertisements.

Kings reached thousands of people through TV and other advertising in the early 2000s. The firm used terrestrial and satellite TV as well as direct mail, brochures and the internet.

In November 2005 the firm was fined £60,000 by the FSA, the predecessor to the FCA, for multiple breaches of Conduct of Business rules.

In its judgment at the time the FSA said that the firm’s financial promotions, “failed to be clear, fair and not misleading."

The FSA added: “Kings' failings are particularly serious for the following reasons:

"The financial promotions concerned the pension assets of customers who were approaching retirement. As such, it was essential that the financial promotions were clear, fair and not misleading and disclosed adequately the significant risks and drawbacks associated with raising funds through pension unlocking. However, together with other deficiencies, the financial promotions which form the subject matter of the Notice contained either no risk warning or a warning which was not fair and adequate.

"The Firm's failures persisted for over two years and arose from systemic weaknesses in Kings' procedures for the approval of financial promotions. For example, during the relevant period Kings became aware, or was made aware by the FSA, of specific deficiencies in its financial promotions. Despite this, Kings failed to review proactively all its existing financial promotions to ensure their compliance with FSA rules and, where any incidences of non-compliance existed, to withdraw its approval for those non-compliant promotions as soon as was reasonably practicable. Kings also failed to ensure that past mistakes were not repeated in subsequent financial promotions.”

The FSA said Kings would have faced a higher penalty if it had not been open and co-operative during the investigation.

The FCA register lists the firm as no longer being authorised since 25 January 2013.

The FSCS has also declared two other adviser firms as failed. Help Financial Limited (FRN 653104) has 21 claims against it for various types of financial advice - 1 has been unsuccessful, 1 has been upheld and 19 in progress. Hudson Foster Financial Services Limited (FRN 131285) - has 4 claims against it, for various types of financial advice - 2 have been unsuccessful, 1 has been upheld and 1 is in progress.