The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has published its latest list of companies that it is set to pay compensation on.
Financial Planning & Investment Limited, based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire was among them, as was Bank House Investment Management Limited in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Bank House was instructed to cease all regulated activity by the FCA in December. At that point, it had not paid regulatory fees of £22,859.29 which were due in August last year. It told the FCA it was unable to pay them due to its financial circumstances. The firm’s draft management accounts show it made a loss of £137,087.39 in the year ending 31 May 2016, the FCA’s documents showed.
The company was found in 2016 to have broken an agreement with the FCA after it had voluntarily agreed in 2015 to not carry on any activities in relation to pension switches and/or pension transfers to SIPPs. It was served with an FCA notice in December.
The regulator found it advised 72 customers on 78 transactions involving pension switches to a SIPP account with that provider between 5 October 2015 and 13 October 2016 – after it had pledged to the regulator it would stop.
The total value switched was approximately £2.65 million, FCA papers showed. The firm’s new business register recorded only 29% of the 78 transactions reported by the SIPP Provider up to 21 September 2016 (the date the Firm provided its new business register to the Authority).
The firm also advised five customers to switch pensions to SIPP accounts offered by two other firms between 8 October 2015 and 10 November 2016.
When questioned by the FCA about the pension switches done to the account offered by the SIPP Provider, the Firm said it understood that the account “was not a SIPP, it was personal pension with a deferred SIPP option”. The FCA then confirmed with the SIPP Provider that it does not offer the option of a deferred SIPP in any of its accounts and that all 78 switches on which the firm advised were to a SIPP account.
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The FCA had serious concerns about the suitability of the firm’s pension advice after visiting in 2015.
The FSCS this week declared 25 firms in default in total. Consumers could get back money they have lost as a result of their dealings with any of the 25 failed firms. A declaration of default means FSCS is satisfied a firm is unable to pay claims for compensation made against it.
The list of firms in default:
- Hertford I.S. Limited Formerly Martin Hale & Company Limited, 130 Fore Street, Hertford, Hertfordshire Sg14 1aj
- Arjent Limited, Acre House, 11-15 William Road, London Nw1 3er
- White House Independent Financial Services Limited, 5 Harbour Exchange Square, London
- Motorcycle Store Limited, 48-50 Shepherds Bush Road, London W6 7ph Enterprise Private Equity Limited, 10 John Princes Street, London W1g 0ah Cornerstone Friendly Society, 6 Honduras Street, London C1y 0th
- Cooper Financial Services, 4 Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton,
- Russell Watchorn Financial Services Limited, 28-30 Park Road, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire
- Financial Planning & Investment Limited, The Gables, Bliss Gate Road, Rock, Kidderminster, Worcestershire
- Furness Financial Management, Queens Gardens Business Centre, 31 Ironmarket, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire
- Anthony William Morrin Formerly Awm Financial Services, Cuthbert House,
- Saints Business Centre, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear
- Universal Wealth Management Llp, Aire House, Mandale Business Park, Belmont Industrial Estate, Durham, County Durham
- Cherwell Finance Limited, Rushtons Insolvency Practitioners, 3 Merchants' Quay, Ashley Lane, West Yorkshire
- Investment & Pension Management Limited T/A Ipm, 145 Barton Road, Stretford, Manchester, Lancashire
- H E Grant Limited, 93 Nethergate, Dundee, Angus
- Clifton Financial Management Limited Formerly Kellands (Glasgow) Limited, 2 Clifton Street, Glasgow, Lanarkshire
- Michael Hugh Munro Trading As Financial Solutions, 24 Market Parade, Havant,
- Blue Ocean Financial Services Limited, Unit 5 Abbeygate Court, Stockett Lane, Maidstone, Kent
- Complete Mortgage & Loan Services Limited, 9 Compass Point, Ensign Way, Southampton, Hampshire
- Mfs Partnership (Sw) Llp, 2 Beechwood Barns, Sparkwell, Plymouth, Devon
- Bank House Investment Management Limited, Kings House, 125 Promenade, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
- Holdsworth & Company, 10a Church Street, Crewkerne, Somerset
- City Motor Holdings Limited, Matford Park Road, Exeter, Devon
- Morley Davis Asset Management Limited, The Linney, Treworder Barton, Egloshayle, Wadebridge, Cornwall
- Independent Financial Management Services, 17-18 Gelliwastad Road, Pontypridd