The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has forked out millions to compensate customers of a failed wealth business.
Figures from the lifeboat scheme, seen by International Adviser, show that it received 235 claims from former clients of Blackstar Wealth Management.
Of those, 88 are currently being assessed, 87 have been deemed successful and 60 were turned down.
To date, £4.4m ($5,691,020, €4,840,510) has been paid out in compensation.
But that sum could increase; as the FSCS expects that 75 of the pending could be successful and it has set aside £98,238 – taking the total to over £4.5m.
Pension woes
The majority of claims relate to Sipps (100), pension transfers (66) and investment bonds (39).
All the claims against Blackstar for investment bonds have been declined by the lifeboat scheme, as well as five related to Sipps.
Most of the successful cases were related to Sipps (62), followed by 24 for pension transfers and one about an unregulated collective investment scheme.
The firm entered administration on 14 August 2019 and was declared in default by the FSCS on 14 January 2020.
But the lifeboat scheme is not the only watchdog to recieve complaints about Blackstar.
A spokesperson for the Financial Ombudsman Services (FOS) confirmed to IA that, between 1 April 2011 and 13 August 2019, it received 99 complaints.
The status of those complaints is not currently known.
