The FSCS has obtained almost 3,000 claims in opposition to 116 recommendation companies concerned in recommending pension merchandise from failed SIPP agency Rowanmoor.
The brand new figures reveal the size of the issue brought on by the failure of Rowanmoor Private Pensions Restricted (RPPL) which collapsed into administration this week after a flood of claims.
Many of the claims have now been handed to the Monetary Companies Compensation Scheme which offers with claims in opposition to failed regulated companies.
Complaints to the Monetary Ombudsman Service about RPPL are additionally being handed to the FSCS.
In a press release to Monetary Planning At present this week the FSCS revealed it has:
• Acquired 2,844 claims in complete in opposition to 116 companies for his or her recommendation to switch to, or take out, Rowanmoor pension merchandise
• 2,400 of those claims have already been accomplished and upheld
• 278 claims have been rejected and 166 are in progress.
The figures underline the scale of the Rowanmoor failure. Rowanmoor ran 4,800 pensions and had property underneath administration of £1.4bn. It’s certainly one of numerous SIPP suppliers to be hit up to now 24 months by complaints over lack of due diligence when permitting typically excessive danger investments to be added to SIPPs.
The total value of the failure of Rowanmoor Private Pensions, one of many UK’s largest SIPP suppliers, isn’t but recognized however is prone to be substantial. The FSCS mentioned the agency was nonetheless underneath investigation and had not but been declared in default. It’s seemingly that Rowanmoor might be declared in default with the prices of compensation shouldered by the business by the FSCS levy.
Earlier this 12 months the Monetary Ombudsman Service issued a willpower following a criticism by a Mr T. in opposition to Rowanmoor Pensions. The willpower lined not simply Mr T. however was related to the 1,387 SIPP funding holders quoted within the willpower who had been shoppers of Rowanmoor.
Most of the instances concerned the due diligence utilized by Rowanmoor on funding gross sales by a regulated recommendation agency and an appointed rep working with the corporate. The recommendation companies really useful investments in a Cape Verde-based group to be included in shoppers’ SIPPs. Nonetheless the brand new figures recommend many extra recommendation companies had been concerned.
In response to the FCA, RPPL obtained numerous complaints about “historic, high-risk, non-standard property” and for not finishing up “enough” due diligence earlier than accepting these property into prospects’ SIPPs.
Following the string of complaints, RPPL sought skilled recommendation about liabilities from current and potential complaints. After the evaluation, RPPL’s administrators decided that the corporate was bancrupt and must be positioned into administration.
The directors mentioned that though RPPL has entered administration the pension scheme property (together with money) are held in belief by Rowanmoor Trustees Restricted (RTL), which has not entered administration.
The failure of Rowanmoor follows the latest failure of competitor Hartley Pensions, which additionally went into administration, and a string of different failures.