FSCS payments to Berkeley Burke investors top £58 million

Complaints to the FOS began in 2017 and centred around whether or not Berkeley Burke Sipp Administration carried out enough due diligence on certain SIPP investment products sold between 2010 and 2012; some investors had been persuaded to invest in high-risk, unsuitable funds, through unregulated introducers, and lost large sums of money as a result.

Following its investigations, FOS said this wasn’t good enough and Berkeley Burke should have taken more care to ensure the investments within their SIPP were suitable. The High Court agreed with the FOS decision, opening the door to more claims against other SIPP providers who had made similar mistakes.

The FSCS is an independent, Government-backed scheme and exists to protect customers when financial firms fail. If the firm can’t pay your claim, the FSCS can step in and pay up to £85,000 in compensation. The FSCS took on claims against Berkeley Burke after the firm went into administration. To date, they have received 2155 claims, of which 1795 have been upheld, 309 have been rejected and 51 are still in progress.

A Self-Invested Personal Pension, or SIPP, is a ‘do it yourself’ pension, which allows you to invest in a wider variety of funds than a traditional pension, offering investors more flexibility. They aren’t without risk, however, and the importance of having sound financial advice can’t be emphasised enough. Unfortunately, some financial advisers have encouraged investors to transfer money into high-risk, even unregulated, funds, without proper consideration of the investor’s needs and objectives, as well as failing to fully explain the potential risks.

We can advise on and help you make a pension mis-selling claim if you have invested in high-risk schemes such as off-plan property, store pods or carbon credits. You may not have received proper Self-Invested Personal Pension(SIPP) advice or you may have been advised to transfer out of your existing defined benefit, company or final salary pension into a lesser scheme.

If the investment provider or financial adviser you invested with has since gone out of business, it is possible to take your claim to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). FSCS claims are often complex, technically challenging, and time-consuming, but we can ensure that your claim is processed as quickly as possible and get you the best result achievable.