Are you a dissatisfied SIPP investor? Have you lost large sums of money on your SIPP investments? Do you think your pension was mis-sold to you? Perhaps your SIPP is not performing as promised or you were not made aware of the risks involved? Maybe you felt pressured by advisers to switch your existing pension to a SIPP that wasn’t suitable or appropriate for your needs?
If you think you have been mis-sold a pension or were given bad advice on your investments from a Financial Adviser or SIPP Provider, that has cost you financially, you may be entitled to compensation. Our SIPP claims experts at Smooth Commercial Law can help you make a quick, hassle free claim for compensation.
At Smooth Commercial Law, our expert team of lawyers are mis-sold SIPP claims specialists, having extensive experience in claiming the maximum compensation for investors who have suffered financially because they have been victims of SIPP mis-selling.
Our dedicated team of specialist SIPP claims lawyers, led by Partner and SIPP claims expert Scott Birchall, have built an enviable reputation and track record of success in helping investors to successfully reclaim lost money from badly invested or underperforming SIPPs.
What is a mis-sold SIPP? Could you be a victim of SIPP mis-selling?
These cases involve individuals setting up a SIPP and then following advice from an adviser investing into one of a number of unregulated high risk investments.
A SIPP is a self invested personal pension. It is, in essence, a DIY pension pot which allows you (the investor) to invest in multiple and more varied investment products than most standard pensions, including a wide variety of schemes, many of which are perfectly legitimate.
Over the last 30 years, SIPPs have proven to be a very popular pension choice, with more than one million people in the UK having invested their hard earned savings into them because of the many benefits they can offer, including: flexibility with the types and quantity of investments you can enter; risk diversification; the option to manage them yourself; more control over your money and investments; tax benefits; the promise of better returns and the option to have help from an independent financial adviser who can make investments on your behalf.
Unfortunately, however, we have seen that a lot of advisers have advised clients to transfer their existing pension into a SIPP and then to invest into one of a number of unregulated high risk, dodgy or inappropriate investment schemes which have ended up being complete disasters. These might include, for example:
- overseas investments
- hotels and holiday properties
- forestry
- green energy
- biodiesel and environmental projects
A financial adviser would usually be tasked with selecting a SIPP investment on behalf of a client and, in doing so, has a duty of care to opt for an investment which best suits the clients’ precise individual needs and objectives. Despite this responsibility, some advisers have been failing in their duty of care when advising investors to invest in schemes without carrying out any due diligence into the scheme or determining the client’s attitude towards risk. As a result, those investors have lost out financially, sometimes having their entire savings wiped out.
Also, another problem associated with SIPPs mis-selling has been the hype and overselling of benefits with many advisers overstating the fantastic, not-to-be-missed investment opportunities and the promises of massive returns, in very short timescales, which never materialised and later turned out to be simply untrue.
The Financial Conduct Authority has reported ‘serious and ongoing failings’ by a number of financial advisers with regards to investments through SIPPs. The main failings generally revolve around advisers not ensuring SIPP investments are safe and suitable for their investors’ needs.
The types of SIPP investments that we can help you make a claim for, include:
- Off plan properties.
- Storage units.
- Parking.
- Carbon credits.
- Bio fuel.
If you have moved your pension out of a workplace scheme, then it could be at risk. Could you be eligible for a slice of a £120 million compensation pot for mis-sold SIPP pensions?
It is becoming increasingly evident that SIPPs have been widely mis-sold to many investors who have lost their hard earned savings as a result of bad advice or reckless SIPP investments because of unscrupulous advisers who were often taking advantage of commission incentives. It is thought as many as 1 in 8 savers could have been mis-sold a pension with more and more cases of SIPP mis-selling being uncovered each and every day.
In recognition of this growing problem, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has set aside a £120 million compensation scheme for victims of SIPP mis-selling.
You may be eligible to make a claim for compensation if:
- You were given bad advice. For example, you were wrongly advised about your options or the advice given by your financial adviser or SIPP provider was unsuitable, unreliable or negligent and has, therefore, cost you financially.
- You were encouraged by pressure sales to invest your pension savings into a SIPP investment that was not right for your circumstances and did not match your individual needs.
- Your adviser had invested in unregulated high risk investments that you did not know about. For example, your financial adviser or SIPP provider encouraged you to transfer your traditional pension into a SIPP and then to invest into one of a number of high risk unregulated investments.
- You were not informed about the potential risks. The potential risks and downsides of your investments were not fully and properly explained to you by your financial adviser or SIPP provider and you were not made aware of what could potentially go wrong.
- You did not have all the necessary information you needed from your financial adviser or SIPP provider to help you make a fully informed decision. If you had been better informed, you would not have gone ahead with your investment or followed the advice.
- You are financially worse off. For example, the value of your SIPP has fallen despite promises and assurances from your financial adviser or SIPP provider that it would increase.
- You were not advised about income tax implications. For example, you were not advised about exceeding the tax free threshold and increasing your tax liability. You may have even been told you could avoid tax.
- You were unaware of additional costs and fees. For example, you have been subject to additional hidden costs and unexplained fees attached to your SIPP investments because they were not fully explained to you and that there was a lack of transparency.
- You were promised guaranteed high returns that never materialised. For example, the returns on your investment do not correspond with the assurances and promises made by your SIPP adviser.
Do you think you have been the victim of a mis-sold SIPP? How can Smooth Commercial Law’s expert mis-sold claims lawyers help you make a claim for compensation?
Our SIPP lawyers, at Smooth Commercial Law, are experts in pension mis-selling and can help you make a claim against your SIPP adviser if you feel you were not given the right advice or the risks of your investment were not properly explained to you.
We have successfully represented many individuals who have been badly advised and mis-sold a pension, helping them to get their pension back and recover the maximum compensation they rightly deserve.
Our dedicated team of mis-sold SIPP claims specialists can help you with:
- Filing your SIPP complaint with your SIPP adviser or SIPP provider.
- All of the paperwork, procedures and any of the issues that might arise, to avoid any delays, ensuring your claim progresses smoothly and efficiently.
- Making sure no details have been overlooked or errors made that could see your claim rejected.
- All correspondence and communications with your SIPP adviser or SIPP provider, and liasing with them on your behalf.
- Getting your compensation to you without delay, as soon as possible.
Our team of SIPP advisers may be able to help you recover losses even if your financial adviser, SIPP provider or the firm you dealt with is no longer trading. If your financial adviser or SIPP provider is now insolvent, we can help you make your claim via the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which can often be a complicated and protracted process.
In these situations, our expert SIPP claims lawyers at Smooth Commercial Law have all the necessary experience and expertise needed to overcome jargon, obstacles and any disagreements that might arise during a dispute, enabling you to reach a swift and efficient conclusion to your matter.
By instructing one of Smooth Commercial Law’s mis-sold SIPP claims lawyers, you can be confident that your claims process will be handled with the necessary professional skill, efficiency and expertise in order to maximise your chance of a quick reclaim.
Our team of dedicated SIPP claims lawyers will always work hard, to the best of their ability, to ensure you get the maximum compensation possible. As all claims are different, we will make sure we ask the right questions and take the time to fully understand your precise situation and individual circumstances in order to assess the strength of your case and likely success of your SIPP compensation claim.
We will be on hand to advise, guide and support you through each critical step of the claims process, ensuring you are kept fully informed and up-to-date on the progress of your claim. This will enable us to progress your claim with speed and efficiency so that all time frames and deadlines that apply to your case are met with ease and confidence. We will collect and collate all the supporting evidence needed to add strength and weight to your case, increasing your chance of getting the optimum level of compensation you deserve.
Whatever your particular circumstances or nature of your claim, our team of expert SIPP claims lawyers have all of the necessary knowledge, skill and strategies ready and in place to make the claims process as smooth, efficient and hassle free, for you, as possible.
We recommend that you contact one of our SIPP claims specialists to raise a complaint, as soon as possible, when you first suspect or discover a problem. That way you will avoid any time limits or deadlines which may affect your claim.
Contact our specialist mis-sold SIPP claims experts today
If you think you are the victim of a mis-sold SIPP or if your SIPP is not performing as you were told it should be, then please get in touch with our specialist mis-sold SIPP lawyers to see if we can claim compensation for you.
To make an appointment or to find out more about how our SIPP claims experts can help you make a claim for compensation for a mis-sold SIPP, telephone 0800 051 2579, email us at info@smoothcl.co.uk or complete our quick online enquiry form and one of our mis-sold SIPP claims experts will get in touch with you promptly.