The agency was included in Eire and passported into the UK beneath the Insurance coverage Distribution Directive, and its workplace in Devon closed on 31 December 2021, in line with the FSCS.
The Monetary Conduct Authority (FCA) granted it permission to hold out sure regulated actions together with advising on investments and pension transfers on 19 December 2016, earlier than which it may perform insurance coverage mediation and insurance coverage distribution actions.
On 13 October 2020, the FCA restricted the agency from disposing of its belongings and shopper base with out its written consent, along with ceasing pension switch advise, in line with the FCA register.
The FSCS has been working with the FCA and the Monetary Ombudsman Service (FOS), it mentioned, to research the actions of the agency, on condition that the FOS has upheld 25 instances towards Wellington Court docket.
However the agency has didn’t fulfill the FOS awards, and the FCA was notified of this failure, in line with the FSCS, which is now contemplating whether or not legitimate claims exist beneath its guidelines in reference to Wellington Court docket’s actions.
As a part of its investigations, the FSCS is contemplating if Wellington Court docket can meet claims made towards it.
Lots of the complaints towards the agency concerned pension transfers right into a self-invested private pension (SIPP) administered by Guinness Mahon Belief Company (GMTC), which was declared in default by FSCS on 29 October 2020.
Nonetheless, the place Wellington Court docket was concerned in a buyer’s switch into the GMTC SIPP, FSCS has required prospects to first exhaust their rights towards Wellington Court docket by way of the FOS earlier than FSCS is ready to contemplate any declare towards GMTC, it mentioned.
In a single such case revealed on the FOS web site, the shopper, Mr S, mentioned {that a} chilly name in 2015 led to a gathering being organized with Wellington Court docket, the place he was suggested to switch a private pension to a SIPP administered by GMTC. On the agency’s recommendation, his switch proceeds had been then invested in Dolphin Capital, a German property improvement scheme that went on to fail.
Mr S filed a grievance with Wellington Court docket in 2019, who in flip alleged that Mr S had by no means been its buyer and that any paperwork linking Mr S to Wellington Court docket was fraudulent.
The agency continued its insistence that it by no means handled the shopper and led to the case being escalated from an investigator to an ombudsman, who issued a provisional choice in October 2021 in favour of the shopper.
The choice hinged on the documentary proof that Wellington Court docket had been paid a 1% advisory charge in relation to Mr S’s switch and plenty of different transfers, totalling not less than £87,000 in relation to greater than 200 transferred insurance policies inside a six-month interval.
In different comparable choices, Wellington Court docket had alleged that GMTC and its associates had been working a rip-off deserving of investigation by the FCA and that it shouldn’t be held liable for the operational failures of GMTC or its regulatory supervision.
In February 2020, GMTC entered into administration following complaints in relation to “historic high-risk non-standard investments,” in line with the FCA. The directors offered the GMTC SIPP enterprise to Hartley Pensions.
