25/1/2010
By Sophie Baker
Members of the Freedom SIPP have been thrown a lifeline with the appointment of Mattioli Woods, as agent to the troubled scheme.
Chosen to provide ongoing scheme administration and consultancy services by the scheme's liquidators, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the pensions consultant will now focus on the winding-up process and will offer long-term support in assisting members to transfer to alternative providers.
Bob Woods, chairman of Mattioli Woods, said that the firm would work to restore the confidence of Freedom SIPP members and ensure business as usual ensues as soon as possible.
"Whilst it was important to assess Freedom SIPP in a business context, it was also important to ensure that the members caught up in the scheme's problems are properly advised to bring their affairs back on track as soon as possible. This is particularly relevant in the aftermath of the banking crisis and what is still a very difficult economic and investment climate," Woods said.
The effort to find a solution saw Mattioli Woods work with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and PwC to give stability and security to Freedom SIPP members, which was thrown into disarray when HM Revenue & Customs deregistered the scheme, and it was wound-up by a High Court judgment for non-payment of tax in October 2009.
Mattioli Woods acts for around 3,000 pension fund clients throughout the UK, with funds under trusteeship amounting to circa £1.5bn.
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