FSCS pays out £108k on Greyfriars claims

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FSCS pays out £108k on Greyfriars claims

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has received 314 claims against troubled wealth manager Greyfriars Asset Management to date, paying out £108,000 in compensation.

FTAdviser has learned of these claims, 48 were unsuccessful while four have been upheld and a total of £108,000 has been paid out to date.

These claims related to self-invested personal pensions, the scheme said, adding the remaining 262 claims were still in progress.

Greyfriars was declared in default by the FSCS in April, after the lifeboat fund received at least one eligible claim against the firm.

According to an update on its website last week (September 22), the lifeboat scheme has now finished its investigation into Greyfriars Sipp and claims have now moved to its assessment teams for consideration, paving the way for more compensation to be paid out.

According to the FSCS, claims submitted against Greyfriars typically relate to a number of investment portfolios offered by the DFM. 

The portfolios were numbered one to six and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had previously expressed concerns about Greyfriars’ Portfolio Six (P6) offering in particular.

In 2016 the FCA instructed Greyfriars to stop accepting any new money into the Greyfriars Asset Management Portfolio Six on a permanent basis.

Greyfriars’ P6 was made up of a variety of unregulated overseas property-based corporate bonds, with at least one of these since going into administration. 

Meanwhile, some of the other claims relate to self-invested personal pensions, pension advice and personal pension opt outs.

Administrators were appointed to Greyfrairs in October 2018, shortly after Hartley Pensions bought the wealth manager's Sipp and small self-administered scheme (Ssas) businesses for £820,000.

The advisory arm of Greyfriars was sold to Insight Financial Associates for £440,000 in the same month, while its discretionary fund management division had already been wound down in 2017. 

amy.austin@ft.com

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