6 October 2022
On 31st August 2022 Rowanmoor Personal Pensions Ltd entered administration. The FCA has confirmed that the Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) operator entered administration following complaints about their failure to carry out adequate due diligence checks on high-risk assets before accepting these assets into customers’ SIPPs.
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The decision was taken after the Financial Ombudsman Service upheld a complaint against Rowanmoor which was similar to most of the other complaints they had already received. In that particular case, a Cape-Verde based investment called The Resort Group, was sold by a regulated advice firm, CIB Life and Pensions Limited, to clients with Rowanmoor SIPPS.
The decision is also of crucial importance as the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) stated that between 2009 and 2013 Rowanmoor had received 1,387 introductions from CIB Life and Pensions Limited, accounting for almost 27% of their business during that time. A FOS Spokesperson also said that FOS were dealing with 886 complaints against Rowanmoor, 61% of which involved the Resort Group.
Rowanmoor was unable to meet its financial liabilities under that decision, and so they were declared insolvent and administrators were appointed.
Now that Rowanmoor is in administration, the FOS is no longer able to accept new claims. Most of the claims which are already with the FOS have now been passed to the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) to deal with. The FSCS have confirmed that they have received nearly 3,000 claims against 116 advice firms involved in recommending pension products from failed SIPP firm Rowanmoor.
Vanessa Bowern, Head of Financial Mis-selling at TRUE, commented: “The failure of a SIPP firm to carry out due diligence checks on investment assets can have a catastrophic impact on the value of an investment. It is the responsibility of a SIPP firm to ensure that the investment is legitimate, safe and the investment is protected, and failure to do so means that they are liable to compensate for the losses sustained by the investor.
It is anticipated that there are many more investors who have lost money on their investments as a result of Rowanmoor’s lack of due diligence, and we would strongly urge anyone who had a SIPP with Rowanmoor, to review the assets that their hard-earned funds were invested into.”
If you think you may have suffered a financial loss on your pension or investment, speak to TRUE today. We have a team of highly experienced, diligent specialists who can investigate a claim on your behalf.
To find out more, visit our Mis-sold Pensions and Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPP) information page,or you would like to speak to one of our specialists directly, please call us on 0344 854 7000 or email vanessa.bowern@true.co.uk.
