Rowanmoor Personal Pensions enters administration

Rowanmoor Personal Pensions Limited (RPPL), a self-invested personal pension operator (SIPP) authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has entered administration.

RPPL, which manages approximately 4,800 pensions, with assets under management of £1.5 billion, has appointed Adam Stevens and Chris Allen of Evelyn Partners LLP (formerly Smith and Williamson LLP) as joint administrators on 31 August 2022.

The FCA has confirmed that RPPL customers’ pension assets will not be affected by the introduction of operator administration as pension scheme assets (including cash) are held by
Rowanmoor Trustees Limited (RTL), which has not entered administration.

Stevens and Allen will continue to manage RPPL’s ​​pension schemes, meaning there will be no immediate changes to the way the pension is handled, and administrators will also continue to accept regular or ad hoc pension contributions.

The FCA said it was in regular contact with administrators who were looking at available options, including transferring RPPL customers to another FCA-regulated SIPP operator, which it said was the option “likely to cause the least disruption to customers”.

If this is not possible, the FCA said administrators will look for another option aimed at transferring SIPPs or returning pension assets back to customers.

According to the FCA, the SIPP operator went into administration following complaints about historically high-risk substandard assets and that it failed to carry out appropriate due diligence before accepting those assets into clients’ SIPPs.

The directors of RPPL determined that the company was insolvent and should be placed into administration after seeking professional advice on liabilities from existing and potential complaints when the Financial Ombudsman confirmed a complaint which was “representative of the majority of complaints received”.

The FCA said RPPL customers should remain alert to the possibility of fraud and that if they receive a cold call from someone claiming to be from RPPL, Evelyn Partners or another company claiming to be involved in the administration, they should stop the conversation and to contact the administrators.