Stop using SIPPs Now!

Stop using SIPPs now!  - FCA Dear CEO letter on SIPP investment due diligence requirements

On 30 October 2018, the FCA published a Dear CEO letter on the due diligence requirements for self-invested pension plan (SIPP) investments.  read here

The purpose of the letter is to draw firms' attention to the judgment handed down in Berkeley Burke Sipp Administration Ltd v Financial Ombudsman Service Ltd  which can be read here

But the FCA letter also brings some alarm to the table.  It highlights a number of other similar – previously-unreported-to-my-knowledge claims queueing up in the High Court.   The cases all deal with SIPP operators' due diligence obligations when accepting customers' investments.
If the SIPP operators bringing these cases go on to lose in the Courts, the FCA remind us all that it could trigger insolvency, and therefore be reportable etc.  The FCA go on to highlight the steps these mystery firms need to take now to avoid FCA sanction.   We can only speculate who they are talking about.

The warning is also written by Andrew Bailey.  It is unusual for such a warning to come from so high up.  Clearly this case has serious implications for us all, and not just for SIPP operators.  
By issuing the warning, the FCA is telling us all that some firms are likely to fail based on this ruling.  Although the ruling is open to appeal, why else would the FCA issue the warning? 
Beaufort Securities who had a small number of SIPPs under its custody failed earlier this year and some important lessons can be drawn from that debacle.  Beaufort went into and are in administration and the assets were largely paid out by transfer to other custodians, but, it seems this was largely done not because of company law, but because of FCA pressure and goodwill on the part of PWC to smaller policy-holders.  There is no saying this will happen again.  PWC in that case demanded a fee of £100m, reduced to £50m just to sort the problem out!  Where else can this money be found except from asset holders?  In Beaufort’s case a few very large holders have been left with the bill, and the solvency position was anyway disputed and it was forced on the company by the FCA. So there may have been funds available from the company’s own resources – albeit not £50m
If the outcome of any of the High Court SIPP operator cases calls into question the firm's ability both now and in the future to meet its financial commitments as they fall due, the SIPP firm must notify the FCA immediately.  But of course they are not going to tell us, are they?  Where relevant, SIPP firms should also notify claims to their professional indemnity insurers in accordance with their policies.   But how sure can we be that PII will pay up?  Your SIPPS might be about as secure as the pen on the underwriter’s desk ticking signing the claim form with  “approve” / “non approve”.
Pending the outcome of any appeal of the judgment in Berkeley and considering the other cases, the FCA will be contacting SIPP operators to discuss their options.  Look out for titbits of information such as “closed to new applications” that almost always indicate the firm is about to fail.
So what should you, the IFA do, if your client has mysterious offshore or NMPI assets held with a SIPP provider?
The answer is transfer them out. 
But who to?  
Clearly no one else will accept them now!

So not a lot to do there, except tidy up the file because trouble may be brewing.
But many people use SIPPS for some fairly straightforward mainstream OEICS.  These will need to be transferred out of higher risk SIPPs or better still transfer into insured schemes, which are obviously a safer option now.

If you are using a SIPP firm that you think may be exposed, not well capitalised, or has a case waiting in the queue at that High Court, then you’re in trouble.  It is time to transfer assets to the well capitalised SIPP firms or, better still, into insured pension providers.
Transfer the assets out before the SIPP firm fails!
And stop using SIPPs for new biz!