Woman claims she lost £332k in pension scheme

Monday 02 July 2018

A case has been heard in the Royal Court where a woman claims she has lost over £170,000 of a final salary pension, and the remaining money is in a locked scheme she is unable to access.

Manita Khuller is suing FNB International Trustees for breach of trust and her case is currently proceeding through the court process with a trial expected to resolve the dispute in the Autumn.

Divorced mother Ms Khuller said her main priority in securing her pension is for her 18-year-old son whom she had hoped would benefit from her final salary pension scheme in the future.

Ms Khuller had a final salary pension of £332,000 from combined sources during her employment in marketing for Unilever and Gillette. In 2011 she was advised to transfer the pension to an overseas pension scheme and soon after Ms Khuller moved to the scheme with FNB International Trustees.

Then, in 2013 she became aware of some high level stock market crashes and soon after found out her pension had been invested in high-risk investment schemes meaning she had lost half of her money, essentially around £170,000 of the money being now bankrupt.

Ms Khuller investigated what was happening with the remaining funds and to this date says she is not sure how much is remaining and also claims she cannot transfer or take out this pension as it is now in a locked bond.

Ms Khuller said: "I have an 18-year-old son at home in London and I am divorced. It is expensive to keep coming back to the island but I must fight my case. I initially decided to represent myself as it would have been too expensive to gain a lawyer for such a lengthy process, however I am now confident representing myself as I know my case and the facts better than anyone."

Pictured: Manita Khuller arriving at court.

In court on Friday Ms Khuller represented herself. She said: "Nobody knows my case as well as me and although I am not a financial expert, I know what has happened from my point of view."

The court heard from lawyers representing FNB International Trustees who were asking to have much of a document presented by Ms Khuller withdrawn from the case. The document discussed at this court sitting was an 'expert' report presented by Ms Khuller by a Mr Ashley who was described as having a background in pensions and risk management.

FNB International trustees said some of the information within the report went "way beyond the remit of the action" and was not relevant to the case. They said that any expert report should be limited to mathematical quantification of loss.

Ms Khuller reiterated that the main points relating to the matter were that the pension had been put in a high risk scheme only normally used by financial experts to which she admitted she was not one. She said that she had documented proof she had requested the pension not be invested in either the stock market or equity investments.

The case is likely to roll on with further sittings before a trial date is set for the Autumn. Ms Khuller was given the option of having a judge only trial or a jurat trial and has decided to proceed with a jurat trial.