FSCS stocks up for mis-sold SIPP claims compensation whirlwind

Time for a SIPP health check?

The Financial Services Compensation scheme has told Life & Pensions advisers that they are set to pay £87m to help fund the SIPP Claims compensation whirlwind it has to pay out to people who have been mis-sold their SIPP pension investments.

Speaking about the increase, the FSCS confirmed they believe that “SIPP mis-selling continues” and that they continue to “receive significant numbers of claims against independent financial advisers regarding advice given to customers to transfer existing pension arrangements into SIPPs”. It added that it “expects to continue to see increased numbers of this type of claim”.

What is the SIPP mis-selling compensation scandal?

Over the past 6 or 7 years, there’s been a big increase in the number of ordinary people being advised to transfer their old pensions into SIPPs: Self-Invested Personal Pensions, often driven by the promise of bigger returns for their money, and therefore a potentially bigger retirement pot.

However, both the FSCS, as well as the team at Spencer Churchill Claims Advice receive calls and emails from people who believe they have been mis-sold their SIPP arrangements, usually alerted by the fact that they have lost some or even all of their pension fund.

In many cases, their suspicions are confirmed – having been sold HIGH RISK and NON-STANDARD investments that should only be sold to people earning over £100k per year and sophisticated investors because of how risky they are. In many cases, these clients were not properly informed that they would be putting their money at such risk by their financial adviser, nor were they properly assessed. This could mean they are entitled to SIPP claims compensation. 

At the time of writing, Spencer Churchill Claims Advice alone has recovered over £30,000,000^ on behalf of our clients on a No Win – No Fee basis*.

What type of investments are involved in SIPP mis-selling?

There’s a huge variety of high-risk investment types involved, from overseas hotels and forestry schemes, to water bonds, windfarms, commercial property and even children’s schemes! The thing they have in common is that they tend to offer high returns, but are HIGH-RISK too – unregulated by the FCA meaning that if things go wrong, there’s often no cavalry automatically coming over the hill from the FSCS or Ombudsman for issues relating to the investments themselves.

Getting a SIPP health check

The specialist team at Spencer Churchill Claims Advice aren’t financial advisers, but we do specialise in spotting mis-sold SIPP pension arrangements and dodgy transfers. Our initial assessments are FREE, and come with no-obligation: a little SIPP health check to make sure you aren’t involved in the SIPP Claims compensation scandal, and to give you some information on what you can do next if you are!

If you have  SIPP, we’re here to chat about what you’ve invested in, and how you got there – just pop your details into the form and we’ll call you back!