Collective Investment Schemes

Mis-sold Collective Investment Schemes

A collective investment scheme, also sometimes known as a pooled investment, is one to which many investors contribute.
A scheme manager will invest the pooled money in assets like stocks, bonds or property to try and generate returns as per the investment aims of the scheme.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning about the “illegal sales” of highly risky, unregulated collective investment schemes to ordinary investors who may not even know they have been exposed.

As these opportunities are all unregulated it leaves investors open to mis-selling and potentially big losses. In these cases it is possible for customers to seek compensation and recoup some of their losses.

Did you have a SIPP investment?

A self-invested personal pension (SIPP) is a scheme that gives you a higher level of control over your own pension. This means you get access to more choices on where you can invest your retirement fund, allowing you to manage your own investments and savings, rather than relying on a pension company or fund manager. The appeal of such a scheme is clear, but the risks associated with it are sometimes not made obvious to investors.

Mis-sold SIPPs have become the subject of an increasing number of complaints made to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).