Liberty Sipp Limited t/a Liberty Pensions

Failed 25 January 2021

FRN: 476409

You might be eligible for compensation

CHECK IF YOU CAN CLAIM

Liberty SIPP Ltd has failed and was placed into administration on 27 April 2020. As a result, FSCS is accepting claims against this firm.

We're aware that FCA-authorised independent financial advisers recommended many Liberty SIPP customers transfer their existing pensions into a Liberty SIPP. Other customers made arrangements to transfer their pensions through unauthorised firms. After the transfer, many customers had their pension funds placed in high-risk, non-standard investments. Some of these have since become illiquid, which means they can’t currently be sold or traded.

For FSCS to be able to pay your claim we must prove that Liberty SIPP Ltd failed in its due diligence - in other words, did Liberty SIPP Ltd do certain checks on the non-standard investments that would hold their customers' pension funds, before accepting them into its SIPP investment portfolio? Did it make sure they were appropriate for a SIPP, and did it identify any potential issues with them? Also, if it did identify potential issues, did it tell the customer?

If you have already made a claim to the Financial Ombudsman Service, they will contact you in regards to the next steps.

If you think that you’ve got a claim against Liberty SIPP Ltd, click the ‘Check if you can claim’ button to start the process. FSCS is free to use and you don’t need to use a representative to make a claim. If you bring your claim to us directly you will receive 100% of any compensation due.

See our investment compensation limits and their conditions on our Investments page.

  • 12 Feb, 2021

    We are gathering information from Liberty SIPP to help assess claims we’ve received.

    In the meantime, we’ll be in touch if we need more information to progress your claim.

    If you see that your claim is in a ‘Thematic Review’ status – don’t worry, we’re still working on your claim.

    We’ll provide an update as soon as we can.

  • 26 Jan, 2021

    Our investigation has concluded that FSCS might be able to compensate customers who invested in Liberty SIPP.

    As a result, we've now passed claims to our claims processing teams for assessment.

  • 14 Aug, 2020

    FSCS is in the process of receiving further due diligence documents from the administrators to help us with our investigation.

    Once we have received and reviewed all the documents, we hope to be able to decide if the failed firm owes a civil liability to its customers.

    We will update you again as soon as we can.

  • 05 Jun, 2020

    FSCS has been working closely with the administrators and has received the due diligence files from Liberty SIPP.

    We have requested further documentation from the administrators. Once we've received and examined it we'll know if it owes a civil liability to customers. In other words, would a UK court hold the failed firm responsible for a customer’s losses?

    When we know this we can announce whether there are valid claims against Liberty SIPP.

  • 27 Apr, 2020

    To consider claims against a failed firm, FSCS must be satisfied that customers have first exhausted any right to claim against any connected firms that are still trading. FSCS understands that FCA-authorised advisers may have recommended transfers of existing pensions or investments through a Liberty SIPP.

    If you were advised by an FCA-authorised adviser that’s still trading to transfer your existing pension or to invest through a Liberty SIPP, you need to complain to them before FSCS can consider your claim against Liberty SIPP Ltd.

    If your adviser rejects your complaint, you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

    If you were advised by an FCA authorised adviser that’s now not trading to transfer your existing pension into or invest through a Liberty SIPP, you should submit a claim to FSCS against your financial adviser.

    FSCS considers different factors when calculating losses on pension advice (a claim against your financial adviser), compared to SIPP investments (a claim against your SIPP provider).

    This means you may be eligible to receive more compensation for any losses by claiming against your financial advisor than if you just made a claim against your SIPP provider.

    You can check to see whether your financial adviser has ever been authorised by visiting the FCA website.

    Although FSCS is accepting claims against Liberty SIPP, claims will not immediately be passed to our claims processing teams for assessment. Firstly we need to establish whether there are protected claims against Liberty SIPP. For this to happen we need to know that Liberty SIPP owes a civil liability to customers that would enable them to sue the firm in court.

    FSCS is working closely with the firm’s administrators and is investigating the practices of Liberty SIPP, specifically seeking to establish what levels of due diligence were carried out by the firm, before allowing customers to make specific investments under their pensions.

FSCS

Contact us by phone on the number below, or via the contact form on the Contact us page.