Two banned by FCA over Sipps investment failings

Two former directors have been banned by the FCA for failing to assess the suitability of investments made through Sipps for their customers. Lloyd Pope and Peter Legerton, formerly of Warrington-based advisory firm TailorMade Independent Ltd, have been barred from holding senior positions.Mr Pope has been fined £93,800 and Mr Legerton would have been fined £84,000, but for financial hardship.The FCA said TMI provided advice to customers on transferring their existing pension funds into unregulated investments such as green oil, biofuels, farmland and overseas property via Sipps.Between 2010 and 2013, 1,661 customers invested £112,420,985 in these investment products, many of which were not typically permitted by their existing pension schemes.TMI has ceased trading and is now in liquidation and The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is investigating claims made by TMI's customers.{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}Georgina Philippou, FCA acting director of enforcement and market oversight, said: "Pope and Legerton exposed customers to risky investments without considering if these products met their needs. Their actions mean many customers face losing all of their hard earned pension funds and fell woefully short of the standards we expect of senior individuals."The FCA released a statement this morning, which said: "The FCA found both men failed to ensure TMI assessed the suitability of investments made through self-invested personal pensions for its customers, failed to ensure that TMI identified and managed its conflicts of interests and failed to oversee properly TMI's compliance function, which had been outsourced to external consultants. "Legerton also benefited financially from poorly managed conflicts of interest between TMI and an unregulated firm that introduced new business to TMI."TMI's customers typically invested in high risk investments and more than half of them invested in overseas property operated by the Harlequin group of companies, which are under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office."The FCA statement said: "As directors with responsibility for the management and oversight of TMI, Pope and Legerton should have ensured that TMI considered the suitability of the investment products for customers but failed to do so."They were also responsible for managing a number of conflicts of interest – including one created by commission payments to Legerton which he received when these investment products were sold to customers directly or through an unregulated firm which introduced customers to TMI for Sipp advice. During the relevant period Legerton's total income from TMI was £300,567."These payments created a conflict of interest and so should have been identified, and then disclosed to customers. However, no adequate disclosure was made. The issue was compounded by Pope and Legerton's failure to act quickly when TMI's external compliance consultants warned them of the need to consider and disclose conflicts of interest to their customers."The FCA said it continues to undertake extensive work on Sipps, and wrote to the CEOs of all Sipp firms in 2014 asking them to take action to ensure that their business operates within the FCA's rules.

Two banned by FCA over Sipps investment failings

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