87 Commercial Street,
Dundee DD1 2AB
Black Star Wealth Management, a financial advisory firm based in Sutton Coldfield, went into administration in 2018 after being stripped of transfer permissions by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and banned from having any involvement in non-mainstream investments/ non-standard assets through SIPPs.
The FCA took this action after growing concerns over Black Star’s professional conduct, particularly with regard to inappropriate SIPP investment advice.
It was found they had been overstating pension holders’ attitudes to risk and capacity for loss, often without any credible rationale for the advice they gave. They relied on the Attitude to Risk (ATR) questionnaire submitted by unregulated introducers like Avacade, but never met clients face-to-face to produce a suitability report.
As in similar cases with other firms, Black Star was placing pension funds into high-risk, unregulated assets via SIPPs, with little justification for doing so and often putting their clients’ money at significant risk. These include:
Many of these projects failed to produce any significant returns for their clients, and nowhere near what they were promised. To make matters worse, clients were subject to ongoing charges of up to 1% per annum plus an additional fixed fee.
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has received a significant number of claims against Black Star Wealth Management primarily concerning unsuitable advice to invest in SIPPs, many of which have been upheld. These complaints have been gaining momentum, with 13 being submitted since 1 April 2019.
If you believe that you too may have a claim against Black Star Wealth Management, the team at Beat the Banks would like to hear from you. We think it’s wrong pension holders have been unfairly cheated out of their money and will do everything we can to help you seek justice. Call us on 0800 193 1234 for a no-obligation chat to get your claims process started.
