pension problems

downhill_racer

Hello

I had an personal pension which i was not contributing to of approx £18,000, i got into a few financial difficulties and a friend told me about early pension release so i followed it up and long story short, i got £5,000 cash, £9,000 was invested in a SIPP and the IFA pocketed the rest - silly i know!!! My issues are

1. At the time i did not release it was against the pension rules but do now, not sure of the implications of this, after trawling the web, it seems i may be face a tax bill

2. £8,000 of the SIPP was invested in some overseas bamboo scheme, turns out it is rubbish and not performing

3. £1,000 of the SIPP is in a bank account and i am getting charged an annual admin fee of £800, which i cannot afford to pay, the IFA never told me about this charge

4. The IFA and SIPP provider have washed their hands of the situation

5. I feel i was mis-sold the whole scheme - not informed it was against pension rules, not informed of SIPP fees etc...

Do i have any options here - moving back into a stakeholder pensions although i may have a lock in period in the investment, reclaiming the fees.

I know i've been stupid, just hoping for a bit of advice.

Thanks.

jamiefly

You have been taken for a ride here and there is nothing that I or anybody on here could do to extricate yourself from this shambles which is of your own making. Looks like that £5k you managed to extract will get swallowed up in tax penalties and the £800 annual fee. Sorry

mania112

Classic situation where desire to release cash blinds you from the sheer stupidity of the process of doing it.

You may get a huge tax bill (i'm assuming you're under 55?) and I don't think putting the situation right now, will avoid that - but you do need to sort this out.

The old Bamboo. Junk. Unregulated. Get rid of it ASAP. If you can sell your investment in this fund, do so. Speak to the SIPP provider and advise you want to do a fund switch and just stick into a cash fund/account for the time being. This may be straightforward or very difficult.

Once done, speak to a reputable IFA about transferring what you've got left back into something more 'recognisable'

Do you have a claim on mis-selling? Possibly. But, without knowing the full situation, I suggest costs and disclaimers were given.

dunstonh

I had an personal pension which i was not contributing to of approx £18,000, i got into a few financial difficulties and a friend told me about early pension release so i followed it up and long story short, i got £5,000 cash, £9,000 was invested in a SIPP and the IFA pocketed the rest - silly i know!!! My issues are

Are you sure it was an IFA. IFAs typically do not get involved in these unlawful schemes. They are typically run by unauthorised individuals and a good many are scams.

1. At the time i did not release it was against the pension rules but do now, not sure of the implications of this, after trawling the web, it seems i may be face a tax bill

That is correct. HMRC are running around 2-3 years behind on catching up with people. Upto 55% tax penalty can be applied.

2. £8,000 of the SIPP was invested in some overseas bamboo scheme, turns out it is rubbish and not performing

That is the sort of area most scams put the money.

4. The IFA and SIPP provider have washed their hands of the situation

SIPP provider has no liability for your investments. As mentioned, I doubt it was an IFA that gave you this advice.

5. I feel i was mis-sold the whole scheme - not informed it was against pension rules, not informed of SIPP fees etc...

You were. However, almost certainly the individuals that advised you were not authorised or regulated in the UK. You wouldnt expect a scam to be.

Have you checked the FSA register to see if it was an IFA? Name them here and we can check the FSA register for you.

downhill_racer

Thanks for all the replies mania112 and dunstonh , needless to say i feel like a complete idiot.

The person who i discussed this with was John Crooks of Bentley House, however Central Tax and Trustee Planning set it up. How can i check the register to see if they are registred?

In this case who would the SIPP provider be - CTTP or the bank of scotland who i get statements from?

In terms of the tax bill, should i contact HMRC to own up or wait for the inevitable letter?

I am going to pursue mis-selling however, any thoughts on how to do this?

Finally, mania112 suggested a cash fund/account - what exactly is this?

Again, many thanks.

dunstonh

The person who i discussed this with was John Crooks of Bentley House, however Central Tax and Trustee Planning set it up. How can i check the register to see if they are registred?

There is no one called John Crooks on the FSA register and no company with that name or part name (i.e. partial match). Bentley House doesnt match on the FSA register either. If the person/firm have no FSA authorisation then you do not get any of the retail financial services protections (so no access to the ombudsman or financial services compensation scheme)

There is a company called Central Tax and Trustee Planning on the FSA register. However, they cased to be regulated by the FSA in March 2012. They were an appointed representative of Central Financial Planning Ltd (FSA number: 219808). So, that company would almost certainly have the liability for advice given by Central Tax and Trustee Planning. However, if their involvement was just to put in place a SIPP and not give you any advice on pension loan or the investments in it then they would not be liable for that.

The SIPP provider is just an administrator for the investments you choose. They wont have liability for the advice.

I am not sure you will get any success on a complaint as the common scam is for the non-regulated individual to break all the rules. Then use a regulated firm, who usually isnt aware of what was said to you, to facilitate the pension transfer and SIPP set up ( and that part of the transaction is done compliantly and above board). However, you should raise the complaint with Central Financial Planning Ltd http://www.centralfinancialplanning.co.uk/Contact,Us,17439,15633.html

Linton

A bit of investigation:

Info on Bentley House here and here. John Cutter Crooks is a director. You can find more information about him from the above links. Bentley House does not appear to be FSA Registered. John Cutter Crooks is registered from the time he was an investment advisor in 2004 with another company but is now classified as inactive. The company has been around since 2004. Their website was also registered in 2004 but is now under redevelopment so nothing useful there. Often the scam companies we see have been set up with a glossy website for only a few months.

Central Tax and Trustee Planning website here. It was set up 10 years ago. From their website they run SIPPs but I havent found any evidence that they are pushing any particular investments for those SIPPs. In which case perhaps they and Bank of Scotland are just involved in supplying the OP with a vanilla SIPP and from their point of view the OP is at liberty to choose whatever investments he wants.

Linton

dunstonh wrote: »

There is a company called Central Tax and Trustee Planning on the FSA register. However, they cased to be regulated by the FSA in March 2012. They were an appointed representative of Central Financial Planning Ltd (FSA number: 219808). So, that company would almost certainly have the liability for advice given by Central Tax and Trustee Planning. However, if their involvement was just to put in place a SIPP and not give you any advice on pension loan or the investments in it then they would not be liable for that.

The SIPP provider is just an administrator for the investments you choose. They wont have liability for the advice.

I am not sure you will get any success on a complaint as the common scam is for the non-regulated individual to break all the rules. Then use a regulated firm, who usually isnt aware of what was said to you, to facilitate the pension transfer and SIPP set up ( and that part of the transaction is done compliantly and above board). However, you should raise the complaint with Central Financial Planning Ltd http://www.centralfinancialplanning.co.uk/Contact,Us,17439,15633.html

Bit of confirmation of what you suspected in that the Central Financial Planning website looks to be identical in style to that for Central Tax and Trustee Planning. The latter one states that they do not provide investment advice and are not FSA regulated but the SIPP is administered by CFP who are. The CFP website is older having been set up in 2002.

PS having just reread the thread it looks more like Bentey House are the company of interest who could have advised and that CTTP are just providing the SIPP through their associate CFP.