Two months after ‘temporarily’ shuttering its international Sipp, the directors of Forthplus Pensions have appointed insolvency practitioners Leonard Curtis Business Solutions Group as joint administrators.
Write down significant sums
According to a statement from Leonard Curtis, seen by International Adviser: “The demise of the company follows a range of factors, most notably the impact of the inability to renew or extend PII.
“On 1 September 2021, the firm announced that it would put a hold on accepting new applications whilst it made arrangements regarding PII.
“However, after consultation with the FCA, it was also deemed appropriate to protect consumers and to cancel all policies which had not received their first transfer and cease all in-flight transfers.
“The impact of this resulted in the firm having to write down significant sums of revenues, and those losses placed the company in breach of its FCA-defined liquid capital requirement.”
FOS complaint
It added that the situation “has been compounded” but the uncertainty surrounding a pending decision by the Financial Ombudsman Service with regard to a complaint made against the firm in October 2018.
In the event of the decision went against Forthplus, it could lead to a number of further claims being made.
“Having explored all options available, the board ultimately concluded that there was nothing that could be done in the short term given the current circumstances to rectify the position and the company was no longer able to meet the threshold conditions to remain as a compliant business,” the Leonard Curtis statement added.
The administrators are currently assessing the options available to them regarding the transfer of customers to an alternative FCA-regulated Sipp administrator.
Detailed guidance on the next steps for creditors and customers will be published in due course by the administrators on their dedicated webpage.
