Quilter International, now owned by Utmost Group, has come under the spotlight for still taking client fees from a fund mis-sold by a subsequently jailed financial adviser, in a Sunday Times report on 12 December.
The Sunday Times said that Martin Rigney of Sheffield- based Topps Rogers Financial Management had not told clients that he was moving their money into high-risk unregulated investments, including Poland Geared Growth.
These investments have been frozen since 2008 and are now administered by JTC Fund Solutions (Guernsey) Ltd.
Quilter International has continued to take administration fees from investors to hold the mis-sold fund, it said, citing a number of clients affected by these ongoing costs.
While there was no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Quilter International, the adviser’s former clients “raised concerns about its failure to detect millions of pounds being transferred from ordinary regulated investments to high-risk unregulated ones over a short period by a single adviser”.
A spokesperson for Utmost Group confirmed to International Investment the following statement:
“Utmost Group completed the acquisition of Quilter International on 30 November 2021. Whilst we are not in a position to comment on individual cases, the provision of good customer outcomes is central to Utmost Group’s strategy and we take our obligations to clients seriously.
“The Group is continuously working to improve customer outcomes, providing value for money as well as full transparency around fees and charging structures. We apply the highest standards to the advisers we work with and work with advisers to ensure that customers outcomes are paramount.”
In a statement to the Sunday Times before it was taken over, Quilter International said: “Each case has been individually assessed and in some cases there was evidence of contributory negligence. We appreciate that these clients trusted Martin Rigby, but Quilter International cannot take responsibility for the adviser’s actions and is also not responsible for third-party fund selection. We would have conducted checks to ensure that Martin Rigby was a regulated adviser.”
In September 2017, Martin Rigney, formerly of Sheffield-based Topps Rogers Financial Management was sentenced to seven years in jail for forging client signatures.
He invested his clients, many elderly, into a high-risk unregulated collective investment scheme.
Rigney had forged documents by either writing clients’ signatures himself or photocopying real signatures.
He was found guilty of 16 counts of forgery back in July, following a 10-week trial, and sentenced on 1 September 2017.
At the time, according to the Derbyshire Times, detective constable Julie Wheeldon, who led the investigation, said: “Martin Rigney committed abhorrent abuses of trust against his clients, who were consequently caused financial difficulty and emotional distress.
“Our thorough and lengthy investigation demonstrates how seriously we take this kind of offence. Today’s passing of a seven-year sentence provides a significant deterrent to others that might think of defrauding trusting clients.”
Rigney had already been fined by the Financial Services Authority (now the Financial Conduct Authority) and banned from regulated activity for advising on unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS).