Greyfriars Asset Management in Administration

I hope the same will be available for lendy soon as well!

Iain, thanks for your PM giving the heads up.  I was approached by lawyers several months back to pursue a FSCS claim against Greyfrairs (SIPP) on a no win no fee basis for 20% (25% when including VAT) on any award.  I was (and still am) very skeptical of the chances of a successful claim given I was already heavily invested in the relevant P2P platforms I subsequently invested in via my Greyfrairs SIPP (Lendy, Abl & ReBS) and that that I was a sophisticated experienced investor (ie the fact that I wasn't advised of the risks etc when investing in the SIPP probably wouldn't have affected my decision to invest).  I discussed these concerns with the lawyers and was advised despite this, the fact that Greyfrairs did not ensure I was appropriately advised would still be sufficient grounds for a successful claim and they had recent successes in cases similar to mine.  On this basis, I decided to proceed with them.  I did briefly consider making my claim directly, but concluded that my case had little merit and didn't want to spend any significant time on it and that the lawyers may be able to frame my claim in way that may increase the chances of success.  That was about 3-4 months ago and my claim is still in process (the Greyfrairs administrators have been slow to present info on by investments requested by FSCS who have given them accomodation given the the number of claim/info requests they are currently acting on).  However, the FSCS did ask for much greater details of other investments I had at the time and of my investment experience which does not bode well and confirms my initial skepticism - unsurprisingly my lawyers have also become more bearish and managing my expectations down......they needn't of bothered.

My bigger concern with the whole saga is that I may be hit with 55% tax on deemed pension withdrawals on the cost value of defaulted debt in my Greyfrairs SIPPs as the SIPP provider that took over Greyfrair's book has itself gone into administration and the assets may be ultimately transferred back to investors if they can't sell the book to someone else.  Normally this wouldn't be an issue if you transferred to another SIPP provider, but I'm not aware of other SIPP providers that allow P2P investments and certainty not ones that would allow creation of new accounts at Lendy or Ablrate.  Given the only investments in my Greyfrairs SIPP are all basket case loans at Lendy or ones that have defaulted on Abl and ReBS, I might have to fight to get the SIPP administrator to write these down for purposes of transfer value which will be a struggle given the platforms are still carrying the values at cost. 


Just when I think things can't get any worse than completely writing off your my investments, the potential prospect of further suffering 55% tax on your losses is beyond depressing......