Two companies facing a collective 337 claims have failed, and a third is under investigation by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
One of the firms, Wellington Court Financial Services Ltd, was declared in default yesterday (May 23) and has 329 outstanding claims largely related to pension and personal investment advice.
Wellington Court was incorporated in Ireland, was passported in the UK and had a branch in Devon which closed on 31 December 2021.
As of 19 December 2016, Wellington Court was authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority to carry out certain regulated activities, including advice on investments and pension transfers.
Until that date, it was only authorized to engage in insurance intermediation and insurance distribution.
The FSCS said it was cooperating with the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman Service to investigate Wellington Court’s activities.
According to the FSCS, the Fos has upheld a large number of complaints against Wellington Court regarding its involvement in the transfer of pensions from clients to a Sipp managed by Guinness Mahon Trust Corporation Ltd.
GMTC was declared in default by FSCS on October 29, 2020.
However, when Wellington Court has been involved in the transfer of a client to the GMTC Sipp, FSCS has required clients to first exhaust their rights against Wellington Court through the Fos before FSCS can consider a claim against GMTC.
But Wellington Court has failed to live up to the Fos awards.
An FSCS spokesperson said: “We opened up to claims in June 2022 to get a sense of the shape of customer claims to support our investigation – so while it’s a high number these claims are over submitted to us for almost a year. .
“The company is now in default as our team has identified a compensable claim.”
Old park capital
The second company, Old Park Capital Limited, was also declared in default yesterday and currently has eight investment-related claims outstanding.
Old Park Capital was an asset manager founded in 2009 and also implemented a Renovation scheme for business premises.
FSCS has received one claim against OPCL related to this settlement.
“We are currently investigating whether there are valid claims against the company,” it said.
“For this to happen, we need to know that OPCL was conducting a regulated activity related to customers’ investments that would lead to claims that FSCS may be able to protect.”
Company under investigation
Elsewhere, an investigation into Abana Unipessoal Lda is currently (May 23) ongoing.
Abana was a Portuguese company that entered the UK on a services basis before December 31, 2020.
The FSCS said Abana’s passport only covered insurance brokerage in the UK.
