Gaudi Regulated Services Limited in administration – Can I make a claim?

Have you transferred your pension into a SIPP with Gaudi Regulated Services Limited (Gaudi)?

Gaudi Regulated Services Limited (also known as Gaudi SIPP or Easy SIPP) were a SIPP provider who facilitated investments into some high-risk and unregulated investment.

Many of their clients have lost all their pension and/or are unable to withdraw benefits.

Many people transferred their personal pension after receiving a cold calls from companies offering free pensions review. They were advised their existing personal pensions were under performing and that they could achieve a better rate of return if they consolidated these pensions and transferred them into a SIPP with Gaudi.

After transferring to Gaudi, Clients were required to sign many waivers and advised to invest into high-risk and speculative investments in new companies without trading history.

Gaudi entered into administration on 25^th April 2023 and sold its assets and customers book to Platform One Ltd.

The Financial Service Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has confirmed it is now investigating Gaudi and accepting claims against them. FSCS has advanced it may take some time before they start looking at the claims.

Why are SIPPs unsuitable for the vast majority of clients?

Generally speaking, a SIPP is considered unsuitable for a retail customer who transfer less than £100,000 to the SIPP as the fees and cost are disproportionately high.

SIPP are also unsuitable for customers with no investment experience.

New hope for clients

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has issued several decisions against Gaudi and open the door to many Gaudi clients to claim compensation for the loss of their pension.

FOS has found against Gaudi in cases involving due diligence errors. FOS have concluded that while Gaudi was not responsible for giving advice to its clients, but it did have a responsibility to carry out sufficient due diligence on the introducers and investments before accepting business from them.

Gaudi accepted thousands of introductions from companies like St Pauls Marketing which did not assess their clients’ needs and pushed them to transfer their pension.

Gaudi should have refused to accept instructions from the clients until they sought advice from a qualified financial advisor. Most clients did not meet the criteria for a SIPP or high-risk investments.

Likewise, Gaudi shouldn’t have allowed clients to invest their pension into a speculative and high-risk new enterprise bond.

The Financial Service Compensation Scheme (FSCS) have confirmed they are now investigating Gaudi and accepting claims against them. FSCS have advanced it may take some time before they start looking at the claims.

What are the most common mis-sold investments within Gaudi’s SIPPs?

The most common investments made within Gaudi SIPPs that are now value zero are:

• Just Loans Group
• Hydrologic Bonds
• ABC Corporate Bonds
• Lanner Car Park
• Affinity Bonds
• Via Capital Loan Note
• Blackmore Multi-Strategy ETF
• Escher Marwick Plc
• Falcon Investment SICAV Plc
• Church House Investments Limited
• Optima World Wide Group Limited Bond

Many of the above investments were made using Discretionary Fund Managers such as Beaufort Securities, Reyker Securities, Strand Capital, and Organic Investment Management.

Who can claim? Can I claim if I have already received compensation?

If you invested in a pension product with Gaudi, you could be able to claim compensation, even if you have already received compensation from FSCS or any other party.

Contact us to see how we can help*.

*You don’t need to instruct a solicitor to make a claim against Gaudi.

Further reading

Gaudi Regulated Services Limited – Oakwood Solicitors

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