The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has launched an investigation after a Kent financial advice firm run by a Chartered Financial Planner failed.

Kent-based financial adviser firm Christopher Barker, trading as Apollo Pension & Investment Advisers (FRN: 470611), was declared in default recently by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The FSCS decision opens the door to ex-clients of the firm to claim compensation of up to £85,000 per successful claim.

A CII spokesman told Financial Planning Today that an investigation had been launched into the adviser who was no longer an active member of the professional body and no longer allowed to use the Chartered Financial Planner designation.

The investigation is expected to take some months and will look into potential breaches of CII rules.

The failed firm was based in Rochester in Kent. The FSCS said the firm was declared in default when the first claim against it was upheld. The FSCS said it had received five claims against the firm relating to investments advice. The firm was first authorised in July 2007 under the name The Apollo Partnership, according to the FCA Register.

In September 2009 it changed its name to Apollo Pension & Investment Advisers. It also traded under the name National Pension Advice & Transfer Bureau between March 2009 and July 2010. According to the adviser website Unbiased, Apollo was established in 1994 in Gillingham by Christopher Barker, a Chartered Financial Planner.

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The FCA Register records that Mr Barker had various approved roles at the firm from November 2007 until 5 June this year. He had previously been at TenetConnect Limited from 2001 to 2007 where he was authorised as an investment adviser and as a pension transfer specialist.

The CII, which has 120,000 members, told Financial Planning Today it had taken disciplinary action against four members over the past year (excluding Mr Barker) although none of them were Chartered Financial Planner firms.

The four individuals disciplined by the CII in the past year were reprimanded for a variety of rule breaches including:

• attempting to gain an advantage by sharing content of a live R06 exam with a trainer to seek their assistance prior to sitting the exam

• falsifying a document by inputting a client’s signature onto it purporting it to be personally signed by the client

• using a company credit card to make unauthorised money withdrawals for his personal use

• making unauthorised withdrawals from a client’s investment portfolio for personal gain and failing to honour a commitment to return monies to his client

While disciplinary actions against Chartered Financial Planners are rare, some Chartered Financial Planner firms, or those previously trading as Chartered Financial Planner firms, have failed in recent times.

Last week Cambrian Associates Ltd (FRN 158976), an adviser firm based in North Wales, went into administration 51 years after being set up. According to the FCA Register, it gained authorisation in December 2001 and traded under the name Cambrian Chartered Financial Planners between January 2015 and November 2021.