The collapsed Self-invested personal pension provider GPC SIPP's administrators are pursuing investors who have lost their pensions investing in Harlequin for unpaid fees.
A report from Smith and Williamson, GPC's administrators, filed on Companies House this week, showed that GPC was owed £2.4m in unpaid SIPP fees in August when the report was signed off.
These fees were owed by clients of GPC who either had insufficient funds in their pot to pay the fee, declined to pay it, or were involved in cases with the FSCS or the regulator.
The administrators have already pursued the clients for missing fees and July 31st, had recovered £31,000. They said they would send debit collectors to investors still owing fees, provided that it was cost effective.
One of the GPC Directors also owes the company £71,000 and the administrators stated in their report that they will take action to retrieve this debt.
GPC entered administration back in June 2019 after it could no longer withstand the pressure from the failed investments on its books.
The provider had administered assets of £130m prior to its collapse across about 3,200 SIPPs and 50 SSAS, holding more than 8,000 property assets
About 2,700 of the SIPPS held alternative investments, several of which failed, such as Harlequin properties, a £400m project involving a luxury hotel development that was largely never built.
It soon faced scores of complaints coming through the Financial Ombudsman Service.
GPC's 'good' pensions book was sold to Hartley Pensions but the administrators anticipate a substantial volume of claims to be brought to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in relation to the 'bad' book.
It emerged in July that chief executive Kathryn Taylor had paid herself a £1m dividend before around 7 months before the company went into administration.
The assets in the SIPPs were placed between 2009 and 2012. In light of the problems with the investments, the company has not marketed its services since 2013, according to administrators.
The administrators' document showed Smith and Williamson were appointed on June 2011 and by July 2021 they had incurred costs of £114,000.
There are also outstanding costs incurred by professional advisers Weightmans of £146,000.
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The information in this article has been sourced from: https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2019/12/12/clients-of-failed-sipp-pursued-by-debt-collectors/?utm_campaign=FTAdviser%20news&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=