The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has confirmed Northampton-based advice firm Better Retirement Group is under investigation following a number of pension transfer claims made against it.
Most of the claims relate to pension transfer advice, including advice given on British Steel Pension Schemes.
If a claim makes it through to a final decision, and if that claim is valid and upheld, then the firm will be declared in default, the FSCS told FTAdviser.
A firm can only reach default status when it is both insolvent and has valid claims against it.
The FSCS cannot yet confirm the number of claims against the firm.
In the current calendar year, 17 cases received by the Financial Ombudsman Service have been upheld against Better Retirement Group.
Last month, Better Retirement volunteered to have its regulated permissions removed and the firm's 67-year-old director also said he was looking to retire.
According to the FCA register, the firm applied to stop all regulated activities on May 30.
Last year, the FSCS reversed a declaration of default against advice firm Better Retirement Group after it was made in error.
The lifeboat scheme declared the firm paving the way for the FSCS to pay out on any eligible claims against it.
However this default was based on a winding up order which has been rescinded, therefore the FSCS has reversed its declaration.
In October, the firm also had to suspended its defined benefit transfer permissions after failing to renew its professional indemnity insurance.
In an interview with FTAdviser last month, Better Retirement Group direct Stuart Bayliss said he took the decision to remove permissions as a way of helping those awaiting compensation.
Better Retirement Group acted as the defined benefit transfer specialist for SVS Securities, a wealth manager which fell into special administration in 2019 after the Financial Conduct Authority identified "serious concerns" about the way the business was operating.
The regulator warned some clients were paying fees and charges as high as 20 per cent of their total investment.
With SVS Securities in liquidation, Bayliss said the FSCS eventually decided complaints should be diverted to his firm for compensation.
“The bottom line is that some of those complaints have been upheld, ignoring completely where people had said, ‘I'm not complaining about Better Retirement Group, I'm complaining about SVS’,” Bayliss said.
Some of the DB transfers Better Retirement Group did were invested with SVS and included some British Steel transfers.
The retiring director has argued British Steel represented less than half a per cent of overall transfers.
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
