UK-based Westerby Trustee Services has acquired the business of Corporate & Professional Pensions Limited (CPPL) for an undisclosed sum.
The deal included the effective transfer of the self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) and small self-administered schemes (Ssas).
This comes a month after Adam Stephens and Nick Myers of Smith & Williamson were appointed as joint administrators of CPPL.
At the time, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said CPPL was forced to enter administration as it was “unable to pay Financial Ombudsman Service final decisions related to the due diligence completed by the firm prior to taking on some pension investments”.
Details
The joint administrators confirmed that all staff will transfer across to Westerby, which “should assist in ensuring that clients will experience minimum disruption in the transfer process” and added that they “do not anticipate that there will be any interruption to the services previously provided by CPPL”.
CPPL specialised in the provision of technical and administration services to C&P Pensions Ltd which acted as the corporate trustee of the Sipps. It also administered and acted as corporate trustee of the Ssas.
It administered around 900 Sipps and 14 Ssas, with a total investment value of £160m ($210m, €189m).
Clients will be contacted in the coming days by both the joint administrators and Westerby with information about their pensions.
Lead administrator Stephens said: “We are pleased to confirm the sale of the business to Westerby, which will provide continuity of service to CPPL’s clients. We recognise that the insolvency of CPPL may have been unsettling to clients.”
Westerby is a specialist of trusteeship and administration services for Sipp and Ssas providers with over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry.
