What is the legal safeguard on my Quilter "Collective Retirement Account"?

Malthusian

Quilter transferred a large part of its book to ReAssure in the last few years, so it could be that. I wouldn't read too much into it. You often see wildly different numbers quoted for assets under administration / management depending on how the business is counting, and whether they are counting subsidiaries, money overseas, etc.

Something close to the doom scenario that Webb is talking about was the collapse of Beaufort Securities, a small stockbroker that got into trouble five years ago after facilitating various investment scams. An administrator (PWC) was appointed to sort out the mess and find a new administrator who would take over their customers.

There was not enough money in Beaufort's own accounts to meet PWC's fees. (As is common when dodgy investment schemes collapse, there was a PR campaign to focus customers' attention on the eight-figure fees charged by PWC, instead of the failings of the former directors.) Consequently, PWC was given permission to take its fees from customer assets. 

No customer money was lost. The FSCS stepped in to cover any amounts deducted from customer accounts, with a cap of £10,000 per customer. As the FSCS limit was (and is) £85,000 per person, nobody was close to losing money. That was a very dodgily-run, small stockbroker; if a big company like Quilter went bust it is even less likely that retail clients would lose money.

The idea that customer assets could be accessed to pay secured creditors of the broker (as opposed to the insolvency administrator) is gibberish, at least in the UK. I would also take the idea that it can happen in the US with a pinch of salt, although it's not my problem. Applies to every country in the world does it? Including North Korea and Somalia?

manselton

OK thanks all. I've clearly got a lot to learn.