The Financial Conduct Authority has banned a financial adviser and fined him £755,000 for pension transfer failings which put clients at risk for his own personal gain.
Frank Breuer has been banned from working in UK financial services for "repeatedly acting without integrity."
He was the joint owner and sole director of Kettering, Northants-based Bluesky Wealth Management Limited (FRN 446963), a financial adviser which provided advice on investments and pensions.
The regulator said that although he was authorised to advise on defined benefit (DB) pension transfers, the firm did not have the appropriate professional insurance in place from April 2019. This meant Mr Breuer’s customers were at risk of not receiving compensation if something went wrong, the FCA said.
Mr Breuer undertook at least 16 DB pension transfers while knowing he was uninsured. He also repeatedly misled the FCA about the firm’s insurance position.
In October 2019, Mr Breuer agreed to restrictions added by the FCA to protect customers and the firm’s assets however he ignored the restrictions and stripped the firm’s assets by paying himself large dividends, taking personal loans and moving money through connected accounts.
By September 2020, Mr Breuer knew that the FCA had concerns about the suitability of Bluesky’s DB advice and from June 2022 onwards, the Financial Ombudsman Service upheld several complaints against Bluesky on the DB advice Mr Breuer had given.
Mr Breuer then placed Bluesky into an insolvency process in April 2023, leaving substantial customer liabilities of at least £214,772 to be met by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: "Mr Breuer sought to evade paying compensation due to customers as a result of his own bad pension advice and feathered his own nest in the process, stripping substantial assets from his firm.
"He repeatedly misled the FCA and flouted FCA restrictions. He’s not fit to work in financial services."
BlueSky Wealth Management Ltd was declared as failed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in December 2023 after being unable to meet the cost of claims against it. Bluesky went into liquidation in In April 2023 and was placed under investigation by FSCS at that point.