The FCA published a warning on 1 April about how some firms are promoting Innovative Finance ISAs (IFISAs). The FCA has seen evidence that IFISAs are being promoted alongside cash ISAs.
This is problematic because investments held in IFISAs are generally high-risk. The money is ultimately invested in products like mini-bonds or peer-to-peer investments.
In addition, these types of investments may not be protected by the Financial Service Compensation Scheme so customers may lose the money invested or find it hard to get it back because of liquidity issues.



Pension Transfers – considering a workplace pension
Alistair MacDougall Compliance Defined Benefit, FCA, Pension, Pension Transfer, PI, Switch, transfer
We recently reviewed a pension transfer report where the client was recommended to transfer out of the defined benefit scheme into the client’s pre-existing SIPP. We considered that the recommendation to transfer appeared to be appropriate. However, the client had what the FCA calls an ‘available qualifying scheme’, more commonly referred to as a […]