The Financial Conduct Authority has fined pension adviser Frank Breuer £755,000 for serious misconduct and banned him from working in financial services.
Problems arose over the poor advice given on DB transfers and the steps taken by Breuer and his firm to avoid paying the required compensation to customers. The regulatory said Breuer acted “without integrity”, putting customers at risk for his own financial gain.
Breuer was the joint owner and sole director of Bluesky Wealth Management Limited, which provided advice on investments and pensions.
Although authorised to advise on DB transfers, the firm did not have the appropriate professional insurance in place from April 2019. This meant customers were at risk of not receiving compensation if something went wrong.
Breuer carried out at least 16 DB pension transfers while knowing he was uninsured. He also repeatedly misled the FCA about the firm’s insurance position.
In October 2019, Breuer agreed to restrictions introduced by the FCA to protect customers and the firm’s assets. However he then subsequently ignored these restrictions and stripped the firm’s assets by paying himself large dividends, taking personal loans and moving money through connected accounts.
The FCA said that by September 2020, Breuer knew that the regulator had concerns about the suitability of Bluesky’s DB advice and from June 2022 onwards, the Financial Ombudsman Service upheld several complaints against the firm on this issue.
Breuer then placed Bluesky into an insolvency process in April 2023, leaving substantial customer liabilities of at least £214,772.88 to be met by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
FCA joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight Therese Chambers said: “Breuer sought to evade paying compensation due to customers as a result of his own bad pension advice and feathered his own nest in the process, stripping substantial assets from his firm. He repeatedly misled the FCA and flouted FCA restrictions. He’s not fit to work in financial services.”