What’s been happening in July 2022?

In our regular monthly update, we share the latest news from our firm.

We became Keller Postman UK

On 4 July 2022, we changed our name to Keller Postman UK. This change came as Warren Postman – one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America – stepped into a new role as Managing Partner in our US office.

We raised the issue of whole-of-life insurance policy mis-selling

In July 2022, our Investment Fraud & Mis-selling team began raising awareness of whole-of-life insurance policy mis-selling. You might be the victim of whole-of-life insurance mis-selling if a financial advisor (or insurance provider) convinced you to purchase a life insurance policy on a maximum cover basis and:

The premiums increase to a level that you could not pay or which became too expensive. Or the amount of cover significantly reduced.
You (or the policyholder) had to cancel/surrender the policy because of such changes (these policies are usually reviewed on a 5-year basis).
You were not made aware that these changes could happen.

If this applies to you, you should contact us to discuss a potential mis-selling claim.

We highlighted a number of schemes, investments & providers that have been accused of pension-mis-selling

Pension mis-selling happens when advisors or companies talk people into transferring their pensions into unsuitable, unregulated, or failed schemes. Our firm helps people in England & Wales claim back what they are due following pension mis-selling.

In July 2022, we began to raise awareness of a number of schemes, investments & providers that have already been accused of pension mis-selling. These include:

Berkeley Burke SIPP Administration. Pension provider Berkeley Burke has been at the centre of a high-profile court battle after many people lost money in mis-sold SIPPs. The company has now gone into administration with the SIPP branch being sold to Hartley Pensions.
Dolphin Capital. Because the Dolphin Trust was not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and it was a high-risk investment, many investors’ life savings had been put at unnecessary risk.
Liberty SIPP. It is likely that those who are involved in the Liberty SIPP mis-selling situation will be able to claim compensation as the provider has now been declared in default by the FSCS.
Rowanmoor SIPP. Pension provider Rowanmoor has faced considerable backlash and received hundreds of complaints regarding a lack of due diligence involving investments made through their SIPP product

We will be adding to this list over the coming months.

Ben Rees examined the FCA’s permissions regime clampdown

Also this month, Technical Director Ben Rees examined the FCA’s permissions regime clampdown and highlights the implications for consumers in Law360. Ben’s article was published on 8 July 2022 and can be found here.

We alerted people to a data breach at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust

In July 2022, we warned people about a data breach at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust. The breach involves ‘special category data’. Special category data is personal data that needs more protection because it is sensitive. As such, victims of this breach are likely to be extremely worried about this data security failure.

We look forward to bringing you more news next month.

Deborah Stuttard