Scottish Widows in court over claims it gave 'negligent' advice to members

Lawyers representing Scottish Widows, the Lloyds Banking Group-owned insurer, will on Thursday make their final arguments in Edinburgh's Court of Session in a hearing that could potentially cost the group hundreds of millions in compensation payouts.

The case has been brought by the Actuarial Review Company, which alleges Scottish Widows was negligent in giving advice to pension fund members. ARC claims Scottish Widows encouraged some pension schemes to give up guarantees that protected against the risk of pensioners living longer than expected, at the height of the dot-com boom in 1999 and 2000. It is alleged that, by waiving these guarantees, hundreds of schemes may have lost out to the tune of £300m.

If ARC wins the case, there could be ramifications, as it could trigger other mis-selling cases.

Scottish Widows, which denies ARC's claims, has written to pensioners potentially affected by the case to outline its position.