The administrators of failed SIPP provider Hartley Pensions Limited say they have encountered issues in contacting its clients.

Hartley’s company records have not been accurate, they said, with many clients contact details out of date, according to the administrator.

The joint administrators UHY Hacker Young have also encountered a large number of clients not responding in each tranche contacted so far as part of the transfer out process.

A total of 1,454 clients have not responded so far.

The transfer out process began in May 2024, with clients allocated into different tranches subject to the assets held.

So far 4,539 clients have been contacted, of which 1,285 have been transferred out.

Tranche 2 comprises of clients with assets of £10,000 or less. There are 335 clients in this tranche with 112 having returned their transfer forms so far.

Clients of white labelled SIPPs, where Hartley operated SIPPs on behalf of other partners, were put into tranche 1. Here, all 905 clients in the RL360 scheme have been transferred.

Of the 157 clients with Ardan SIPPs, 127 have confirmed their instruction to transfer to Ardan, with 75 completing their transfer so far. So far 154 of the 181 clients of Trireme SIPPs have responded, with 90 having transferred to Trireme. Of the 389 clients with Platform One, 356 have responded. Clients of Fundment, Octopus, Simply Ethical and James Brearley have also been contacted.

Morgan Lloyd clients were sent their transfer packs between September and February. Of the 1,510 clients, 607 have responded of which 51 have been transferred to Morgan Lloyd.

Morgan Lloyd is also reviewing a further 741 clients to establish which they would be able to take on. The administrator expects transfer packs to be sent to these clients by September. Clients that Morgan Lloyds is unable to take on will be contacted separately.

There are 329 Hartley clients to have deceased that the administrators are aware of so far.

There are 7,974 clients who hold impaired assets within their SIPPs. The administrators are holding ongoing discussions with HMRC and the FSCS as to how to resolve how these assets are dealt with.

Hartley Pensions went into administration in 2022 after several regulatory interventions and a failure to find a buyer. An estimated 16,000 clients were hit by the collapse. It had been subject to a number of FCA requirements in early 2022 due to, “serious operational, financial and regulatory issues.”

In previous years, Hartley Pensions had acquired the client books of several failed SIPP providers. It bought the Guinness Mahon book in February 2020 after the firm collapsed. The deal meant the transfer of 4,000 SIPPs previously administered by GMTC which suffered a string of problems and legal actions from unhappy clients.

Other SIPP books the firm acquired in recent years included GPC, Berkeley Burke SIPP and Greyfriars AM.