Self-invested personal pension (Sipp) operator Hartley Pensions has been placed into administration at the request of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
On 29 July, Peter Kubik and Brian Johnson of UHY Hacker Young were appointed as joint administrators.
This comes after the FCA told the firm it cannot accept any new clients and then the company asked the regulator to enforce requirements preventing it from accepting ongoing contributions into Sipps as well as to temporarily stop it carrying out transfers.
UHY Hacker Young said in a statement: “Hartley remains subject to a number of FCA requirements agreed with by, or imposed upon, it. The requirements were agreed or imposed in an attempt for Hartley to correct a number of operational, financial and regulatory issues within the business and to protect Hartley’s clients.”
The FCA added: “We are in regular contact with the joint administrators who are looking at the options available, including the transfer of Hartley Pensions clients to another FCA regulated Sipp operator. If this is not possible, the administrators will look to pursue other options aimed at transferring Sipps or returning Sipp assets back to clients.”
Clients
The UK watchdog has also given information to clients about what they should do now that Hartley Pensions is in administration.
It said that clients with Sipps currently in drawdown will not be affected by the firm entering into administration.
UK regulator added: “At the moment, Hartley Pensions is not accepting contributions from clients to be paid into their pensions. This will be kept under review and if this changes the joint administrators will contact any affected clients. You should not try to make payments into or transfer assets into your Sipp. If you do, they will be returned to you.
“Existing pension assets are currently unaffected by the firm going into administration. They are held by trustee firms, which are not regulated by the FCA and have not entered into insolvency. If this changes the joint administrators will contact any clients affected.”
The FCA said that any complaints made about the firm should be made to UHY Hacker Young. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will be working closely with the joint administrators to understand whether there are any protected claims that would allow the FSCS to declare a default and pay compensation.
The FSCS “will not therefore be opening its online claims service to claims against Hartley Pensions in the first instance”, the UK regulator added.
