Protecting clients' retirment savings: why pay fees Liberty hasn't earned yet?

I am curious if anyone else has experienced a similar issue with Liberty...

I'm helping my mom with her retirement annuities, and we've been trying to get an acceptable answer from Liberty on why she needs to pay 'outstanding future expenses' if she wants to transfer her RA to another provider. There are no guarantees on this product - just a plain RA where my mom takes all the investment risk, but if she wants to move to another platform she has to pay admin/management fee penalties for future unincurred expenses. For a low income earner it is a significant amount (over 10% of the value), and so Liberty is forcing her to stay and keep paying fees and not exercise her own choice in provider or even the underlying investments. I was just surprised and upset to learn this - surely in today's world of FAIS and TCF this is no longer allowed? Liberty can't provide her with any proof that she signed, agreed and understood she is being locked in for the life of the contract. It should not only be a financial right, but a human right, to have freedom of choice in your savings if there are no product guarantees or risk to the issuer, only to the policyholder. It comes across as pure financial greed, as the company keeps earning fees without giving its client choice or sharing in any of the investment risks.

I work in the industry myself and it was only in the last step of the transfer application that we realized there are penalties. Would other investors know to look out for this if they're not trained?

I usually hold Liberty in high regard, and so I am keen to engage with Liberty / others and not the generic uninspiring responses we've received over the last years.