Investors to get claims

More than 100 investors in home income plans sold by a failed South Yorkshire financial adviser stand to gain compensation of more than £2m from an industry-wide rescue fund.

The Investors Compensation Scheme announced yesterday that it is asking all clients of South Yorkshire Financial Planning, formerly based in Doncaster, to get in touch so their claims can be assessed.

The collapsed firm already faces claims from 101 home income plan victims plus a further 25 people, many of them miners, who were advised to transfer their occupational pensions into private ones. Home income schemes were meant to deliver income from money raised by taking out a mortgage. Falling house prices, high interest rates and low investment returns put paid to the schemes.

Clients of six other now-defunct financial advice firms are also being told they may be eligible to claim compensation in separate cases ranging from home income plan sales to theft.

The firms are: Chapman and Hutchins Financial Advisers, of Wandsworth, London; Solicitors Financial Advisory Services, of York; Harold Wynne (Life & Pensions), of Abridge, Essex; Managed Financial Services, of Coventry; Rutland Shaw Financial Services, in London; and Wadsworth Bates, of Wetherby, West Yorkshire.

An ICS spokesman said claims were being calculated at about £20,000 per income scheme in the South Yorkshire case. Pension transfer compensation details are not yet known.