SIPP and SSAS provider Alltrust has acquired failed firm Rowanmoor Personal Pensions Limited (RPPL) which went into administration in the summer after a flood of complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

RPPL’s SIPP and Family Pension Trust staff will move to Alltrust and the sale is expected to be completed by February.

RPPL, a major SIPP and SSAS provider, administered 4,000 SIPPs and 800 Family Pension Trusts with a total investment value of £1.5bn.

Cardiff-based Alltrust is a long established provider of SIPPs and SSAS plans and pension products as well as trusteeship and administration services. The administrators of RPPL say all plans will transfer to Alltrust.

Rowanmoor Personal Pensions was previously part of Embark Group but was floated off as a standalone business in February when Lloyds Banking Group bought the Embark business for £390m.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has declared RPPL "under investigation."

The FSCS said in the summer that it was expecting a "number" of cases to come over from the Financial Ombudsman Service which has been dealing with a flood of complaints about Rowanmoor.

The FSCS confirmed in the summer that it had already paid out on claims against failed IFAs who "misadvised" clients in relation to their Rowanmoor SIPP.

Many of the cases covered the due diligence applied by Rowanmoor on investment sales by a regulated advice firm and an appointed rep working with the company. The advice firms sold investments in a Cape Verde-based group to be included in clients' SIPPs.

According to the FCA, RPPL received a number of complaints about "historic, high-risk non-standard assets" and for not carrying out "adequate" due diligence before accepting these assets into customers’ SIPPs. The Financial Ombudsman Service upheld a complaint which was representative of most of the complaints received.

Following the string of complaints, RPPL sought professional advice about liabilities arising from existing and potential complaints. After the review, RPPL’s directors determined that the company was insolvent and should be placed into administration.

RPPL clients and advisers will receive letters in the coming days which provide details on the business sale to Alltrust.

Evelyn Partners, the joint administrators of Rowanmoor Personal Pensions Limited (RPPL), exchanged contracts this week on the sale to Alltrust Services Limited of RPPL’s Self-Invested Personal Pension and Family Pension Trust business following a period of marketing.

The failure of Rowanmoor followed the recent failure of competitor Hartley Pensions which has also now gone into administration.

Evelyn Partners LLP, the accountancy arm of the wealth manager, was appointed as joint administrators of RPPL on 31 August 2022 after RPPL became insolvent.

Adam Stephens, lead administrator, said: “We are pleased to confirm that contracts have been exchanged for the sale of RPPL’s SIPP and FPT business to Alltrust, which we anticipate will complete in early 2023 and should provide continuity of service to RPPL’s clients. 

“This is a good result and we thank all of Rowanmoor’s staff for their assistance and the company’s many clients for their patience whilst we work to finalise the sale.”

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP acted as legal advisers to the administrators on the sale, led by restructuring and insolvency partner Julian Turner, corporate partner Rizwan Rahman and pensions partner Alistair Hill.

• In a separate deal, SSAS firm WestBridge Group announced today it would acquire the employees, clients and assets of Rowanmoor Executive Pensions Limited’s (REPL) book of 3,500 small self-administered schemes (SSAS), for an undisclosed sum. This is the second major acquisition for Leicester-based WestBridge and follows the purchase of the James Hay SSAS book in March 2021. The deal will add over 3,500 SSASs to Westbridge’s existing book of 1,000 schemes.

• Further information is available on the dedicated RPPL administration webpage: www.evelyn.com/services/restructuring-and-recovery-services/rowanmoor-personal-pensions-limited. The joint administrators can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 020 7131 8110.