The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has received more than 1,000 claims against embattled self-invested personal pension provider Guinness Mahon.
The claims are waiting to be passed to the claims processing teams for assessment as the lifeboat scheme still needs to determine whether they are valid.
According to the FSCS, it has received documents from Guinness Mahon’s administrators, which should help it determine if the provider owes a civil liability to its clients. It can then begin to pay out on any valid claims.
Eligible clients can bring claims to the FSCS up to the limit of £85,000.
Adam Stephens and Nick Myers of Smith & Williamson were appointed as joint administrators of Guinness Mahon Trust Corporation Limited in February but immediately sold the Sipp business and certain assets to Hartley Pensions for an undisclosed sum.
The sale of Guinness Mahon included around 4,000 Sipps and certain other assets but did not include the legal entity Guinness Mahon Trust Corporation Limited which remains in administration.
The Sipp provider entered administration following a raft of complaints about historic high-risk non-standard investments and the alleged lack of due diligence that the provider carried out before accepting these investments into its Sipps.
Earlier this week (September 22), Sipp veteran John Moret said it was about time the industry moved forward and stopped dealing with claims from more than eight years ago, to drive down the FSCS levy for advisers.
He said: “It would be really helpful if the regulator accepted that there was a period between 2007 and 2012 when providers were not entirely clear what their responsibilities were, particularly in terms of investment due diligence.
“The FCA could then say that for any investments made during this period, providers would just need to show that they actually operated in line with their understanding at the time. And if we could just put those legacy issues to bed, it would help enormously.”
amy.austin@ft.com
What do you think about the issues raised by this story? Email us on fa.letters@ft.com to let us know
