Regulations
By Bruce Buterin
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£126 Million Moved, Not All of It Appropriately. That 92% figure is striking on its own. But the number behind it is bigger: over £126 million…
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Fines Cut, But Bans Stay Firm. Here's where it gets a bit more nuanced. The FCA initially calculated fines based on all of…
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The FCA ban stands. Richard Fenech and Heather Dunne are out of financial services — probably for good — after the Upper Tribunal upheld the regulator's decision against both of…
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Dunne ran her own outfit, Heather Dunne Independent Financial Adviser — HDIFA — working as a pension transfer specialist.
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Between April 2015 and June 2017, Dunne advised roughly 92% of her clients to leave defined benefit pension schemes.
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That 92% figure is striking on its own. But the number behind it is bigger: over £126 million transferred out of defined benefit schemes across Dunne's client base during that…
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Fenech, for his part, failed to supervise her properly. He didn't catch what she was doing, or didn't act on it.
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The regulator's original enforcement action — a 2024 decision notice — laid out the misconduct in detail. That document remains central to the case. Dunne and Fenech challenged it.
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Here's where it gets a bit more nuanced. The FCA initially calculated fines based on all of Dunne's advice being in breach of regulatory requirements.
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Dunne's fine landed at £41,230. Fenech's came in at £16,046, calculated specifically against the income he earned through his relationship with Dunne.
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Related: Harmony Proposes Shutdown and Migration to Ethereum Following 109,000-Transaction Exploit
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The Tribunal ruled on April 27 and July 27, 2026. From the decision date, Dunne and Fenech each have 14 days to appeal. That's a tight window.
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It's worth stepping back for a second. Defined benefit pension transfers have been a flashpoint for UK regulators for years.
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The backdated document made everything worse. Regulators depend on what they're given. When someone hands over paperwork designed to misrepresent a timeline, it doesn't just…
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Customers who took Dunne's advice and suffered losses aren't necessarily left without options.
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