Thursday, August 24, 2006

Berkeley Independent Advisers Network in Default

Berkeley Independent Advisers Network in Default

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has declared Berkeley Independent Advisers (BIA) network in default, five months after Tenet acquired it for £700K.

The FSCS said that the decision had been made after receiving 300 claims for compensation from individuals, and after being advised by administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers that it did not have sufficient assets to meet the cost of redress.

Consumers will now be able to receive compensation for alleged poor advice from BIA's advisers in relation to endowment mortgages, investment bonds and personal pensions.

All other regulated financial services firms, including other advisers, will cover the bill for compensating former BIA clients through their annual levy to the FSCS.

Questions are being raised as to the speed with which BIA has been declared in default.

As repeated time and time again on this site, if the life assurance companies just agreed to underwrite their useless underperforming endowment policies much of this pain and extra cost could be avoided.

Failing that people, and the life assurance industry, are going to be saddled with this problem for years to come.

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