European Pensions Management Ltd

30 Sep, 2021

We’ve now concluded our investigation into whether there are valid claims against EPML. We’re sorry our investigations have taken some time, and we’re grateful for your patience.

For claims against failed SIPP operators, FSCS may pay compensation if we’re satisfied that the claim is ‘protected’. A claim would be ‘protected’ if EMPL owed a civil liability to customers - that is, if customers were able to sue the firm in court. Importantly, this civil liability must be in connection with a regulated activity carried out by the firm.

In paying compensation, we must abide by the COMP Rules. We have carried out a thorough examination of the claims received against EPML and taken external legal advice. As a result, we are not satisfied there are claims where the conduct of EPML gives rise to a civil liability.

FSCS pays compensation when a SIPP operator has assumed a duty to undertake due diligence on investments held in a customer’s SIPP and has not carried it out to the appropriate standard. We’ve not seen any evidence that EPML carried out due diligence in relation to the investments customers are claiming for.

As EPML does not appear to have undertaken due diligence, FSCS is unable to consider whether there were related due diligence failings that would lead to a civil liability.

We’ve also considered EPML’s activities as SIPP Trustee and whether there’s a potential civil liability. We reviewed the evidence relating to EPML’s SIPP Trustee services and are unable to conclude that it was carrying out any regulated activities. As no regulated activities took place, there are no protected claims against EPML regarding its trustee duties.

Unfortunately, based on the evidence FSCS has seen to date, customers are unlikely to have valid claims against the Firm.

All claims have now been moved to our claims processing teams. Once they’ve completed their review, customers will receive a decision letter.

11 Feb, 2021

We’ve continued working with third parties to help us with our investigation.

We’ve assessed what level of due diligence EPML carried out. We’ve also reviewed the types of investments held in customers’ SIPPs (Self-Invested Personal Pensions).

Next, we’ll find out whether a UK court would determine that EPML was responsible for its customers’ losses.

Once we find out, we can announce whether claims against EPML are valid.

10 Sep, 2020

FSCS has received further documents from the administrators to help us with our investigation. 

Once we have reviewed these 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. 

01 Jul, 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 still trading.

So, if an FCA-authorised adviser that’s still trading advised you to transfer your existing pension, or to invest through an EPM SIPP, complain to them. If your adviser rejects your complaint, you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). 

If an FCA-authorised adviser that’s now not trading advised you to transfer your existing pension into or invest through an EPM SIPP, submit a claim to FSCS against your financial adviser. Click the 'Check you can claim' button to get started.

We consider different factors when calculating losses on pension advice compared to SIPP investments. 

This means you may be eligible to receive more compensation by claiming against your financial advisor compared to a claim against your SIPP provider. 

A list of FCA-authorised financial advisors is on the FCA website. 

Although FSCS is accepting claims against EPML, we're not yet passing claims to our processing teams for assessment. 

To get to this next stage, we need to know that EPML owes a civil liability to customers. In other words, that a UK court would hold the failed firm responsible for a customer’s losses.

We're currently working with the administrators. We're trying to find out what levels of due diligence the firm carried out before allowing customers to make specific investments under their pensions. 

We'll update this page when we've more progress to report. To get an alert when this happens, please sign up for email updates.