A Sipp and Ssas provider has failed with nearly 500 claims against it.
DAC Pensions, formerly known as Davies & Co SSAS Solutions Ltd trading as DAC Pensions, was declared in default by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme yesterday (March 16).
The company has 482 claims against, four which have been unsuccessful and one which was upheld yesterday, triggering the declaration of default.
The remaining claims are all in progress.
The company was placed into voluntary liquidation on August 27 2021.
The FSCS said it is aware that an overseas independent financial adviser recommended many DAC Pensions customers transfer their existing pensions into a DAC Pensions Sipp.
“After the transfer, many customers had their pension funds placed in high-risk, non-standard investments.
“Some of these have since become illiquid and unredeemable, which means they can’t currently be sold or traded.”
For the FSCS to be able to pay investors’ claims, it said, it must prove that DAC Pensions failed in its due diligence.
The FSCS said: “In other words, did DAC Pensions Ltd do certain checks on the non-standard investments that would hold their customers' pension funds, before accepting them into its Sipp investment portfolio? Did it make sure they were appropriate for a Sipp, and did it identify any potential issues with them? Also, if it did identify potential issues, did it tell customers?”
The liefboat scheme added: "We are mindful customers have experienced a delay while we have undertaken our investigation into DAC and its introducers.
"We would like to assure you we are committed to providing decisions to customers with claims against DAC as soon as we can."
sally.hickey@ft.com
