FCA plans to ban 2 over £10m of SIPP investments

The FCA has provisionally banned two financial advisers for “acting without integrity” in relation to SIPPs pensions advice involving £10m of investments. The two, Stephen Joseph Burdett and James Paul Goodchild, are both accused by the FCA of “recklessly” exposing pension holders to high risk and unsuitable pensions. Mr Burdett has also been provisionally fined £311,762 and Mr Goodchild has been provisionally fined £47,600. Both advisers have appealed the decisions to the Upper Tribunal so the bans and fines are conditional on being upheld by the tribunal. The FCA said that in the case of Mr Burdett some allegations and findings are no longer being pursued by the FCA to the tribunal. Mr Burdett previously held a senior role at Swansea-based Synergy Wealth Limited (Synergy) and Mr Goodchild held a senior role at London-based Westbury Private Clients LLP (Westbury). The FCA alleges that Mr Burdett's actions led to 232 personal pension funds worth over £10 million being switched into high-risk investment portfolios that were “obviously unsuitable” for most customers. The portfolios were created and managed by Mr Goodchild at Westbury, with 39% of overall holdings linked to a single offshore property developer. All the portfolios were high-risk, the regulator said. Despite this Mr Burdett's actions led to customers receiving reports implying they would be invested in low or medium risk portfolios. Mr Goodchild included the misleading terms “cautious” and “balanced” in the names of two of the three high-risk portfolios. In addition, Mr Burdett acted as a director of Synergy despite knowing he did not have the required FCA approval to perform such a function. Mr Burdett also failed to co-operate appropriately with the FCA’s investigation. London-based Westbury offered a number of products including SIPPs. Mr Goodchild designed, created and managed Model Portfolios and invested pension holders’ funds held in the Westbury SIPPs based on them. Synergy advised retail pension holders to switch their pensions into the Westbury SIPP, which was created and managed by a discretionary fund manager called Westbury Private Clients LLP. The Westbury SIPP used self-invested personal pensions to invest retail pension holders’ funds based on one of three model portfolios created and managed by Westbury. The FCA intervened in 2016 to protect consumers, halting the pensions business of Synergy and Westbury. Both firms subsequently went into liquidation and were dissolved. Mr Burdett gained £150,000 from his misconduct, the FCA said. Mr Goodchild also obtained significant financial benefit, including through a short-term £50,000 interest free loan from the company which introduced him to the offshore property developer. To date, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has paid out over £1.4 million to victims. Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “These customers built up pensions over their working lives to help fund their retirement. Mr Burdett and Mr Goodchild worked together to switch their hard-earned pensions into obviously unsuitable high-risk portfolios. "Both were involved in creating misleading materials and made significant personal profits from their actions. We will not tolerate such conduct.” Details of the case were delayed from being published because of an outstanding applications for privacy orders by both Mr Burdett and Mr Goodchild.

FCA plans to ban 2 over £10m of SIPP investments

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