SIPP provider and wealth manager Mattioli Woods has welcomed a decision which could pave the way for compensation pay-outs to investors in a company’s failed Self-Invested Personal Pensions.

Essex-based Sipp provider Stadia Trustees was forced by the FCA to stop accepting new business in 2013. A ruling this week by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to declare the firm in default should now mean a payout of settlements for former Stadia Trustees clients.

After working closely with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Mattioli Woods was appointed to assist Stadia Trustees and secured members’ benefits to transfer their assets to alternative pension arrangements.  

Around 1,000 individuals were involved in the switch to Mattioli Woods. The company estimated as many as 80 per cent had some element of exposure to non-standard assets, with more than half having all of their pension funds invested in these.

Mattioli Woods chief operating officer Mark Smith said today: “Some members have had to endure an extended period of uncertainty about whether their pension assets were ever going to have any value. 

“We are delighted that this arrangement will enable them to get back some or all of the money they have lost as a result of the transfer of their pension benefits from other existing pension arrangements to high-risk investments”.

Mr Smith warned members who stand to receive compensation from the FSCS to be wary of claim management companies who may try to cash in on the pay-outs.

He said: “The FSCS has made it clear that for individual members of these SIPPs, they will contact them directly without the need for members to engage with a claim management firm. That way, members will get all the compensation they are entitled to without paying someone else’s fees.  We will continue to work closely with FSCS and the members whilst they complete this process ”.

“As a SIPP provider you still have responsibility for the pension transfers you accept and the assets that members hold. As a result of the FSCS announcement, we expect to see that claims they have been pushing back for a while will now have to be dealt with.”

FSCS chief executive Mark Neale said: “The FSCS steps in to protect consumers around the UK when authorised financial services firms fail. We are satisfied in these cases that certain claims are eligible for compensation, and expect to receive more claims of this nature in the coming months. 

“We will be getting in touch with customers of these firms as we may be able to help.”