Claims against Greyfriars Asset Management will be passed to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme’s claims processing team for assessment next month, the lifeboat fund has said.
In an update on its website today (October 29) the FSCS confirmed that Greyfriars Asset Management may owe money to its customers and therefore claims are now being passed on for assessment.
To date the FSCS has received 99 claims against the firm, with is still pending default. The scheme cannot pay out until it has declared the firm in default, which involves making sure there are eligible claims and the firm can not meet the claims against it.
The lifeboat scheme is currently finalising how it will deal with these claims as each must be considered separately to see whether compensation is due.
To consider claims against a failed firm, the FSCS must also be sure that customers have tried to claim against any connected firm that's still trading, and have been unsuccessful.
The lifeboat scheme said it was aware that FCA authorised advisers may have recommended individuals to invest with Greyfriars Asset Management or to transfer their existing pensions or investments through a self-invested personal pension.
One such adviser, Consumer Wealth, entered liquidation in January after receiving 13 Financial Ombudsman Service complaints against it.
If an adviser is still trading then the individual will first have to complain to the adviser and if this complaint is rejected it can be taken to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
But if the advice was from an adviser who is no longer trading then a claim should be submitted against this adviser to the FSCS.
Greyfriars Asset Management was a wealth management business which had seen its permissions restricted by the Financial Conduct Authority before becoming insolvent last year.
Adam Stephens and Henry Shinners of Smith & Williamson were appointed as joint administrators of Greyfriars on October 23 2018, following the firm’s application for insolvency.
Two days later, the administrators concluded the sale of Greyfriars’ Sipp and small self-administered scheme (Ssas) businesses to Hartley Pensions for £820,000.
The advisory arm of Greyfriars was sold to Insight Financial Associates for £440,000 in a deal that completed on October 16.
Apart from the divisions sold to Insight and Hartley, Greyfriars also provided discretionary fund management services. But this division commenced a wind down in 2017 and is no longer active.
amy.austin@ft.com
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