We have recently secured several decisions against Liberty SIPP. Our clients had investment trouble after trust the firm with their pension pots.
Who are they?
Liberty SIPP is a Self-invested personal pension advisor. The company had approximately £2.95 billion in assets under management in its SIPP products and administers around 12,800 SIPPs and works with over 700 advice firms in the UK.
Investment trouble
Between 2011 and 2013 Liberty SIPP allowed large investments into risky companies such as Gravity Childcare and Ethical Forestry Ltd.
Liberty SIPP had allowed millions of pounds to be invested in a company called Gravity Childcare. Gravity Childcare advised the investments would be used to build homes for children in care,. It promised investors up to 19% guaranteed returns and all initial investments paid back.
Unfortunately, this did not happen and only two homes were built before Gravity Childcare entered into liquidation. The firm was accused of mishandling the investment money shortly after.
Another high-risk investment was Ethical Forestry Ltd, a Costa Rican tree plantation. Investors invested a minimum of £18,000. As with Gravity Childcare, Ethical Forestry Ltd is now in liquidation and is currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office with investors finding themselves out of pocket. Many of our clients had investment trouble with Ethical Forestry.
Recent News
In May 2018 Liberty reported pre-tax profits of £506,000, a near 20% increase in pre-tax profit on the previous year.
However, by 15th October 2018, it was revealed that pension provider Embark Group has bought Liberty SIPP’s client book for an undisclosed sum. Importantly, the actual company was not acquired. It is now set to be wound up following the sale of its client book.
The transferred Liberty SIPP products will be operated by Embark’s subsidiary EBS. Embark will inject £2 million of capital into the subsidiary to run the SIPP products.
The timing of this sale follows the 30 cases issued by APJ solicitors against Liberty SIPP acting on behalf of investors suffering significant losses as a result of unregulated pension investments through Liberty SIPP.
In addition to the cases issued, we currently have a further 700 clients who also suffered significant losses due to the mis-selling of SIPPs administered by Liberty SIPPs.
Does or did Liberty SIPP act as administrator for your SIPP, could you have invested in Gravity Childcare, Ethical Forestry Ltd or other companies and lost money?
If so contact Anthony Philip James Solicitors. Our team of financial mis-selling experts, may be able to recover compensation for any loss suffered.