FCA wants pension rich excluded from sophisticated investor loophole

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) want to completely exclude pension wealth from high net worth investor (HNWI) calculations in order to prevent retirees losing their nest egg in high risk sophisticated investments.

It has proposed an amendment to its ‘certified high net worth investor' and ‘restricted investor' (RI) certification criteria so it is clear that, except where the withdrawals are intended as income in retirement, lump sum pension withdrawals are expressly excluded from the HNWI income criteria. Also it wants to make clear money released from pensions as cash is excluded from the definition of net investable assets for the purposes of HNWI and RI certification, in addition to the current exclusion of money held in pensions. "We are concerned some consumers' perception of their overall...