Mis-Sold Investments
Browse commonly mis-sold SIPP pension investments, or use the space below to search for a specific one
Not all investments are equal when it comes to their level of risk. Some are unregualted by the watchdogs at the Financial Conduct Authority, leaving them more open to conflicts, wrong-doing and offer less protection in some places.
The investments in our lists are not here because they are ‘bad investments’ (although some of them turned out to be), but because they are high-risk investments, ones that have been commonly mis-sold by a variety of financial advisers, often through SIPP pensions.
Each mis-sold investment page will give you a basic bio and backstory to each scheme, so you can make a more informed choice should you wish to make a claim for a mis-sold investment. Use the Search Bar to find your investment, or browse at your leisure.
E-L
Eastbridge Investments
Elysian Fuels
EOS Solar
Ethical Forestry Ltd
Freedom Bay St Lucia
Gas Verdant
Global Plantations
Gravity Child Care
Green Oil Plantations
Greyfriars Portfolio Six
Harlequin Properties
Hydrology Plc
InvestUS Exit Strategy
Land Banking
Lomax Student Halls
Los Pandos (Martin Clews)
Understanding high-risk investment claims
The investments listed above all have 2 things in common:
- They are high-risk investments
- They were commonly mis-sold to people with SIPP, SSAS and QROPS pensions
They are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – the watchdogs of the UK finance world, and many of them are based abroad or floated on foreign stock exchanges, meaning they may be more open to volatility, fraud and collapse.
If something was to go wrong with any of these investments (and in many cases, it has gone very wrong), then the investors in them may lose everything they invested.
Because these are FCA unregulated investments, the investments themselves are not protected by the FSCS.
UCIS, non-standard and illiquid assets
You may hear or read these jargony-words when people talk about some of the investments above, and it can be difficult to know what they mean.
UCIS – Unregulated Collective Investment Scheme
These investments are not regulated by the FCA, and are considered high-risk. They are a type of non-standard investment.
Non Standard Investment
These investments are a little out of the ordinary, and may be unregulated, prone to volatility in price, and may have little tangibility.
Illiquid Assets
An asset is an investment you have ownership of. If an investment is “liquid”, it means there is a vibrant market for it, meaning shares in the investment can be bought and sold easily.
Illiquid is the opposite, and investing in an asset that is “prone to illiquidity” could mean that your money gets trapped there for a long period of time, or may drop in value, sometimes to nothing.
Suitability
The selling of high-risk investments has a strict rule book.
FCA guidelines say that financial advisers must consider the suitability of the investments for the individual before recommending them or executing business.
Its obvious when you think about it – some people can afford to take the risk (high net worth individuals), and some can’t.
Other people have experience in this kind of investing, and understand what they’re getting into (Sophisticated Investors), and others don’t.
When financial advisers recommend high-risk investments to people with low-risk profiles, then they may be mis-selling those investments, and those people may be able to make a claim.