Pension Investment - Harlequin Property??

dunstonh

And if you dont think they are illegal, here is another link.
http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/pensions/high-court-rules-that-pension-fund-loans-for-under-55s-are-illegal/1043886.article

getzls

Thanks all, will give him a ring. He's not on M.S.E. but i will try to get him to look at these answers.

LittleHebe

My goodness please keep away from this company. They took my money for land in central america and nothing materialised. Been trying for years to get my money back. Who on earth gave them authority to provide SIPPs??

CannySaver_2

LittleHebe wrote: »

My goodness please keep away from this company. They took my money for land in central america and nothing materialised. Been trying for years to get my money back. Who on earth gave them authority to provide SIPPs??

They don't provide SIPPs, they just provide the "investment", however there are still SIPP providers out there allowing Harlequin investments to be bought by their SIPP.

It raises an interesting point, if all SIPP providers opened their eyes and said "no" to Harlequin the problem would go away overnight. One could argue that as trustees the SIPP providers should be doing more due diligence on investments anyway, but then that wouldn't get their fees paid now would it?

The Canny Saver

dunstonh

One could argue that as trustees the SIPP providers should be doing more due diligence on investments anyway, but then that wouldn't get their fees paid now would it?

The counter argument is that it is a SIPP. The whole point of a SIPP is to allow greater freedom of investment to be utilised by more experienced investors without a lot of the safety nets that exist with personal pensions and stakeholder pensions (both of those do due diligence on the funds they offer or require the investments to be listed on the LSE).

Not saying I agree with that but just putting a counter position in place as there will no doubt be SIPP investors that dont want to pay for SIPP adminstrators to vet their investment choice. That said, SIPPs are about to have more requirements put in place. Not sure how far it will go though.

CannySaver_2

dunstonh wrote: »

The counter argument is that it is a SIPP. The whole point of a SIPP is to allow greater freedom of investment to be utilised by more experienced investors without a lot of the safety nets that exist with personal pensions and stakeholder pensions (both of those do due diligence on the funds they offer or require the investments to be listed on the LSE).

Not saying I agree with that but just putting a counter position in place as there will no doubt be SIPP investors that dont want to pay for SIPP adminstrators to vet their investment choice. That said, SIPPs are about to have more requirements put in place. Not sure how far it will go though.

Hi Dunstonh

Its a fine line isn't it, between allowing greater investment flexibility and the SIPP providers carrying out their responsibility as trustees.

My own view is that they can never assess suitability of an investment viz a vis a client circumstances, this is down to the IFA or individual investor to decide. However, they should do some basic due diligence on investments to confirm they are not an opportunity for someone to lose their shirt.

For example, I know one of the UK's major SIPP providers has stopped clients investing in Harlequin becuase they have seen broken covenants, this would seem a sensible course of action i.e. the SIPP provider has knowledge which could stop one of their beneficiaries losing money, it seems only right that they should share this information.

What get's my goat is the SIPP providers who still let a lot of this rubbish in just so they can get a few fees; very short sighted in my humble opinion, it really will come back and bite them on the backside in the future!

The Canny Saver

handytips

I have been approached quite a few times with reference to introducing some of my clients for this scheme. However i have had a look at myself in some depth, and conclude i will never ever recommend any of these investments. How could i. I want to carry on living.

simo68

Hi All,

I have one of my friends that has lost money with Harlequin. She is now part of a group action in London with a company called
CPC Worldwide based in the North East.

If you are interested, I think this Company can help.

Simon

mania112

simo68 wrote: »

Hi All,

I have one of my friends that has lost money with Harlequin. She is now part of a group action in London with a company called
CPC Worldwide based in the North East.

If you are interested, I think this Company can help.

Simon

It might be useful to others to explain the way in which your friend lost money (presumably we're talking about a SIPP? You could have directly invested with this scheme).

Look_at_the_facts

Record ALL communications with them and report this misrepresentation to the Serious Fraud Office - they are investigating Harlequin and their agents for deliberate spin on the truth. They are not authorised to say that or imply that they can. how typical. Don't get involved. They don't own anything and can't legally sell you anything. How serious does it get? SFO are investigating them for fraud! If you got the truth it won't have come out of Basildon or the mouth of a guy called Dalligan.