The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has paid a total of £40.4mn on Lifetime Sipp claims as the defunct Sipp provider’s administrators say the majority of creditors are yet to submit claims.
The lifeboat scheme told FTAdviser that to date it has received 1,300 claims in total for Lifetime Sipp Company.
Out of these 982 have been successful, 278 have been unsuccessful and 40 are still in progress.
However, according to the latest liquidators report, published on Companies House yesterday (April 18), the majority of creditors are yet to either submit claims to the FSCS, or complete the process of evidencing their claim to allow them to receive compensation.
The liquidators have said they are yet to receive claims from 3,229 creditors.
Due to this the liquidators said it was difficult to determine how long this process may still take, and it would not be unreasonable to assume a further two years.
Lifetime Sipp appointed administrators Kingston Smith & Partners, now known as Moore Kingston Smith & Partners, at the end of March 2018 after receiving claims from unhappy investors.
At the time of administration, lawyers representing claimants warned the FSCS could be hit with as much as £3.5mn in claims related to Lifetime Sipp's Harlequin Property assets alone.
The firm went into liquidation on April 2, 2019 and was declared in default by the FSCS on June 13, 2019.
FTAdviser learned the troubled Sipp firm had started to transfer 40 per cent of its Sipp book to Hartley Pensions in January 2018, ahead of going into administration.
However, on July 29, 2022, Hartley entered administration and Peter Kubik and Brian Johnson of UHY Hacker Young were appointed joint administrators.
Lifetime Sipp’s liquidators said due to this, it has received additional queries because of - and in relation to - the Hartley administration.
amy.austin@ft.com
