The FCA said its order, known as a Section 166 notice, also meant the UK-based company can no longer provide advice in relation to any underlying investments, whether regulated or unregulated, and must not dispose of, or in any way diminish, the value of its assets with the regulator’s prior approval.
The requirements will remain in place until an independent expert, known as a Skilled Person, confirms to the FCA that Strategic Wealth has put in place a compliant business model with compliant and robust systems and controls.
The regulator’s order affects the Strategic Wealth’s UK operation and its authorised representative, Synergy Wealth Ltd, and only covers its UK pensions business.
On its website, Strategic Wealth UK says it has “partnered a team (sic) of specialist offshore advisers that can advise on QROPS and QNUPS for expatriates, as well as Offshore Lifetime Annuities.”
Growing list
The FCA move is the latest in a series of actions by the regulator to prevent IFA’s from engaging in pension transfer activities in response to series of complaints about inappropriate advice.
In February deVere UK was ordered by the FCA to “immediately cease” providing advice on overseas pension transfers. A spokesman for the company said at the time that deVere UK had “entered into a voluntary requirement to cease providing advice in this arena”.
Another firm that fell foul of the watchdog was Holborn Assets Ltd, which was ordered to immediately cease all pension transfer business, particularly that introduced by overseas advisers, in March.
Unlike deVere, Holborn was sanctioned under section 55L of the Financial Services and Markets Act (2000), highlighting the various tools at the regulator’s disposal to investigate pension transfers.
The UK pension transfer industry has been under the Financial Conduct Authority’s microscope for a while, with little indication that the watchdog is going to let up any time soon.
The FCA fired a warning shot at pension transfer firms in January, expressing concern that consumers were “at risk of transferring into unsuitable investments or, worse, being scammed”.
A freedom of information request revealed that, in the year to January 2017, 16 firms agreed to stop activities related to pension transfers, 13 stopped self-invested personal pension scheme (Sipps), and 23 stopped all activity related to pension switches.
Editors Note: This story has been edited to make clear that the regulatory action is against Strategic Wealth UK Limited only, and that whilst a previous version of the story described that business as the UK arm of the Gibraltan headquartered firm, the correct position is that these are two independently regulated entities.
