The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Paul Steel of Estate Matters Financial (EMF) from working in financial services for giving "unsuitable defined benefit (DB) transfer advice".
Steel has been ordered to pay £850,000 to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to cover compensation costs.
Steel's firm, EMF, advised more than 480 clients on DB pension transfers, including people in the British Steel Pension Scheme between 2015 and 2018.
More than £140m of pension assets were transferred as a result. When the FCA investigated a sample of client files in 2019, it found several instances of unsuitable advice. It said 86% of this advice failed to meet the required standards.
The regulator also said Steel "showed a lack of honesty and integrity in selling his client book for less than its value, to himself".
"This meant that customers who had lost out from the poor advice could not pursue EMF for redress," the FCA said.
As a result, the watchdog and obtained a freezing injunction, and brought proceedings in the High Court seeking redress for customer losses. It agreed to settle those proceedings on the basis of Steel's agreement not to contest the FCA's penalties.
FCA joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight Therese Chambers said: "Steel failed to provide suitable pension transfer advice. But he also failed to act with honesty and integrity when he improperly sold the firm's assets for less than their value - to himself - so that he could enjoy the profits of the business without the burden of the risks that he had created.
"We are determined that those who fail in their duties to their customers take responsibility for paying towards redress and do not expect the FSCS, and the vast majority of firms who do the right thing, to pick up the tab for their failings."
