AJ Bell’s Sippcentre is the latest provider to be hit with poor servicing allegations following a spate of self-invested personal pension related problems reported by advisers.
Simon Welch, IFA for Newark-based Sense Financial Solutions, claimed he transferred a client’s pension top-up payment of £40,000 by Chaps into a Sipp held with Sippcentre on 14 March, and claimed it “went missing” for a week.
Mr Welch alleged that after repeated and “frantic” phone calls, the provider identified the payment on 20 March, with the delay caused by a reference number failing to correspond. Mr Welch said this “nightmare” had caused “huge stress” to both himself and the client.
He then lodged a complaint during a telephone call with Sippcentre on 20 March; after 10 April, he sent an email to Sippcentre, requesting a payment of £444 to cover his wasted time.
On 28 May, a letter from Sippcentre to Mr Welch, seen by Financial Adviser, offered his client £75 in compensation but refused to pay the invoice.
Billy Mackay, marketing director at AJ Bell, said: “It is wrong to say that the money went missing. The £40,000 was transferred to an AJ Bell account with a reference attached to it that did not relate to the client’s Sipp.
“As a result, we could not identify the relevant £40,000 to allow us to allocate it to the client account. The payment was made in mid-March in the run-up to the tax-year end.”
Mr Mackay apologised for the delay in dealing with Mr Welch’s complaint.
Last week, Graeme Mitchell, managing director of Galashiels-based Lowland Financial, said he planned to move his clients from Hornbuckle Mitchell following poor service.
Patrick Van de Steen, managing director of product and marketing at Hornbuckle Mitchell, admitted that service had been poor earlier in the year but said the firm was now clear about assets it will accept and has plans to “develop products that manage expectations better”.
He also defended the firm’s exit fee of £800 - the industry’s most expensive - as “reasonable” given the long-term nature of Sipp investments.
The complaints follow two additional problems reported by IFAs who claimed to have struggled to deal with Hornbuckle Mitchell earlier in the year.
