The administrators of defunct Sipp provider Hartley Pensions have informed clients that they will be creating an informal committee to make sure the rest of the administration process goes ahead in the “fairest possible manner”.
The announcement comes after UHY Hacker Young administrators informed customers that they will replace the annual management fees they are paying with an ‘exit and administration charge’.
This would take care of the administrators’ costs of managing the Sipp as well as transferring the pension to a different operator.
But before applying such a charge, UHY said it will make an application to the court to make sure it can actually be levied.
As part of the process, the joint administrators are creating an informal committee “of interested parties” to help them understand the best way forward. They will invite regulatory bodies, IFAs and a selection of clients to take part.
“The principal purpose of the committee will be to consult with the joint administrators so as to ensure that all potential considerations have been taken into account when deciding on the fairest possible manner in which to calculate and administer the ‘exit and administration charge’,” UHY said in its latest update.
“A further purpose of the committee is to assist the joint administrators in identifying one or more representative respondent(s) who can represent clients in the court application. The representative respondent(s) will ensure that clients’ interests are fairly represented and all reasonable arguments clients may wish to make to the court are put before the judge.”
UHY is also proposing the appointment of independent legal advisers to support client representatives as well.
