What does FSCS stand for?

FSCS stands for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The FSCS is the UK’s compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms. The FSCS may pay compensation to members of the public if a firm is unable, or likely to be unable, to pay claims against it. This is usually because the advice firm has stopped trading, has insufficient assets to pay claims or is insolvent. The FSCS is one of the organisations that the Complaints SOS team may contact to claim compensation on your behalf.

What does the Claims Process look like?

At Complaints SOS, we divide the claims process up in to simple, organised steps which help ensure you know which stage of the process you are at.

These steps are as follows:

  1. When you feel ready to take action and would like us to help, you can contact us by whichever way is most convenient for you. This may be via phone, email or by submitting a summary of your claim and your contact details on our online ‘contact us’ form.
  2. We contact you to talk through your situation and if you would prefer, arrange a meeting to clear up any questions you or we may have.
  3.  Once we have received all the information you can provide us with, after you have granted us the required authority and after we have decided that we believe we can help with your case, our team then begin to analyse your claim.
  4. Our team begin to identify gaps in the information we have and chase third parties and appropriate organisations to ensure that your case is fairly represented when submitted to the relevant firm or organisation who will deal with your claim for an individual assessment.
  5. Once your claim has been submitted to the wrongful organisation, FSCS, FOS or Pensions Ombudsman, our team work hard to answer any queries that these organisations may have and gather any further required information on your behalf. This is to help ensure that you are awarded fair and accurate compensation from those responsible once they have made their decision.
  6. Once they have made a decision and if compensation is granted, we will charge a fee which you will pay from the compensation you have received.
  7. If compensation is awarded to you, we hope that you feel more relaxed and comfortable in your financial situation.
  8. If the organisation we have complained against or applied to decide that you are not owed compensation, our team will look into the reasoning they provide for this decision and raise any necessary queries with them at no cost. This may result in them re-opening the claim or complaint and reviewing your case again to see if compensation is to be granted.

N.B. At any time you can manage your claim for free by yourself. There may be a charge for this, as set out in our terms of business.

What is a SIPP?

A Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) is a personal pension scheme approved by the government. Since SIPPs were introduced vast amounts of UK citizens have used a SIPP to further their pension pot.

SIPPs are considered riskier than other types of savings as they rely on the success of where the money is invested.

Particularly risky investments include overseas investments, most environmental related investments and certain types of property. Sadly, lots of SIPPs have been mis-sold, and a great number of people have lost much of their hard-earned savings.

We have a specialist team who can help and support you in making SIPPs claims, and always fight to ensure that our clients get the best representation when claiming for compensation, and receive the justice that they deserve.

How might I have been mis-advised or received unsuitable, poor financial advice?

It is likely you were provided with poor, unsuitable financial advice where any of the following applies:

Lack of understanding – Where you are new to investing and did not understand the process or investment that you were advised on.
Hard selling or pressure selling – Where you felt uncomfortable or pressured into an investment that you didn’t really need or want.
Provided with poor advice – Where you were advised to switch, even though your existing scheme was more suitable to your current and future pension needs.
Advised you could avoid tax – If your financial or pensions adviser recommended an SIPP as a means of tax avoidance.

More generally, if any poor advice concerning financial products e.g. SIPPs left your worse off, you may be able to make a complaint and receive claim compensation.

Lack of transparency on fees – If you were not made aware of any management fees or additional costs attached to the investment.
No advice given on the risks – If you were not given advice about the risky nature of investing in property and the potential negative implications.
Are there any other useful websites out there to help me understand my entitlements?

Other sources of help can be found on for example, the FSCS website or via the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to name but a few.

We offer our services as the terminology used during the process along with the process requirements can sometimes be difficult to understand. Additionally, there can sometimes be time-consuming tasks and chasing involved between individuals, pension providers and other associated companies.  By taking advantage of the claims management services we have developed, this will help to ensure that you are fairly and accurately represented during the claims management process and help to ensure that any compensation that is fairly due will be issued.

If you would prefer to represent your own case directly with the FSCS, FOS or Pensions Regulator, this is possible at no cost.

What is Mis-Selling?
You have probably heard about the mis-selling scandal that is Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), but unfortunately that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Financial mis-selling is on the rise and we see the impact that it has on consumers’ pockets, savings, well-being and of course their trust in the financial services industry.

We deal with the claims management processes for a range of financial products that have been mis-sold. These include Pension Transfers, Investments and Mortgages.

What are examples of Mis-sold SIPP Investments?

SIPP investments are, unfortunately, amongst the most common examples of mis-selling and some have lost either all or a large proportion of their resale value.

Common examples include:

  • Airport Parking Spaces
  • Australia Farmland
  • Cape Verde Investments
  • Carbon Credits
  • CFD Trading
  • Chateau le las Cazine
  • Diamond Investments
  • Dolphin
  • Ecoland Brazil
  • Elysian Fuels
  • EOS Solar Energy
  • Ethical Forestry
  • Forest Lakes
  • Freedom Bay
  • Green Oil Plantations
  • Harlequin Property
  • Harmony Bay
  • InvestUS Property
  • Kudos
  • Land Banks
  • M&C Energy
  • Physical Gold
  • Pure Diamonds
  • Rare Earth Metals
  • The Resort Group
  • Rimondi Grand
  • Salina Seas
  • SCS Farmland
  • Stirling Mortimer
  • Store Pods
  • Sustainable Agro Energy
  • Venture Oil
  • Wine Investments

Complaints SOS Limited is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. FCA number is 829742. Registered in Northern Ireland No. NI648039. Registered office 2a High Street, Holywood, BT18 9AZ.