The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is gearing up to assess 100 applications for compensation against self-invested personal pension provider Pointon York after it found at least one valid claim.
According to an update on the FSCS’s website, after investigating the levels of due diligence carried out by Pointon York before allowing clients to make specific investments using their Sipp, the lifeboat scheme has determined that claims exist against the provider.
Therefore it will now pass the 100 claims which have already been submitted to its claims processing teams for assessment.
The FSCS started accepting claims against Pointon York in July, after the company went into liquidation in November 2018.
But before claims can be assessed, the scheme must establish whether the company legally owes its customers.
The lifeboat scheme said it had some difficulty trying to establish whether valid claims existed against the provider after it struggled to collect evidence from third parties.
The FSCS was working with parties including Sipp provider Curtis Banks, which had bought the provider's Sipp book, the previous insolvency practitioner and the previous directors - to collect as much information as possible to help with its investigation.
However, it previously struggled to get documents relating to the amount of due diligence done by Pointon York on the investments it had made for its customers.
FTAdviser understands it is not unusual for there to be challenges in obtaining the relevant documentation from a company that has failed.
The FSCS also said it was aware that “some Pointon York customers were advised by independent financial advisers to transfer existing pensions into a Pointon York Sipp”.
Following this transfer, clients had their funds placed in high risk, non-standard investments, some of which have become illiquid.
The FSCS has already paid out on a number of claims against IFAs in relation to advice customers received to transfer their pension into a Pointon York Sipp.
Curtis Banks bought Pointon York’s Sipp book for an undisclosed sum in 2014.
Speaking to FTAdviser at the time, Paul Tarran, finance director at Curtis Banks, said the deal saw 7,000 schemes come across to Curtis’s books from Pointon York.
amy.austin@ft.com
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