Not upheld: Investment mis-selling complaint against Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr C complained that Bestinvest failed to efficiently administer his SIPP in relation to a corporate action involving Base Resources Limited shares in September 2024. The shares were subject to a scheme of arrangement offering replacement Energy Fuels Inc. shares or cash, but Mr C was given only 24 hours to decide. After the Court approved the scheme, the share registrar encountered problems compiling the new register, preventing allocation of the new shares to Mr C's SIPP until May 2025. Additionally, after allocation, Mr C discovered he could not sell the USD-denominated shares via Bestinvest's online platform, which only supports GBP assets. The ombudsman found that the short notification period and allocation delays were outside Bestinvest's control and resulted from third-party custodian and registrar issues, and that the online dealing restriction was a legitimate commercial decision. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while the 24-hour notification period was very short, it reflected timescales imposed by the registrar and custodian, not unnecessary delays introduced by Bestinvest. The delays in allocating new shares were entirely outside Bestinvest's control and resulted from registrar problems with the share register compilation. Bestinvest was reliant on the custodian to perform the allocation and had no ability to speed up the process. Other SIPP providers faced similar issues. Regarding the inability to sell shares online, the ombudsman found this was a commercial decision by Bestinvest to restrict online dealing to GBP assets, and Mr C had no contractual right to conduct all transactions via the online platform. The shares can be sold by telephone through the Client Relations team.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website