Wills & Co's creditors have approved its proposal for a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA). Consequently, the FSA has withdrawn its petition for the winding up of Wills & Co.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) today confirmed that Wills & Co Stockbrokers Limited (Wills & Co) is ‘in default’. This means the FSCS can start considering compensation claims against the firm.
Wills & Co has been declared in default as it has been found by the FSCS to be unable, or likely to be unable, to pay claims against it.
The FSCS is working with the firm’s directors and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to ensure that all complaints made against the firm are transferred to the scheme, along with all relevant company records.
Once the complaint files and company records have been received, the FSCS will send out application forms to the individuals to enable them to apply for compensation.
The FSCS will then be able to consider claims up to its investment limit of £50,000 per claim.
What to do next
If you have already registered a complaint with the firm or the FOS you do not need to take any further action at this stage.
If you have not yet set out a complaint to the firm and would like to make a claim, you should contact the FSCS, with full details of why you believe you are owed money by the firm.
Meanwhile, we have today cancelled our authorisation of Wills & Co as the firm is no longer conducting regulated business. Cancellation of the firm’s authorisation does not affect customers’ claims for compensation.
We have become aware that a 'recovery room' is targeting investors who have bought shares through Wills & Co Stockbrokers Limited.
A recovery room is an unauthorised firm that cold calls investors and offers to buy their shares. The firm targeting Wills & Co investors is offering to recover their investments for free in return for the opportunity to provide them with recommendations on future investments.
Why this is a scam
These firms, often calling from outside the UK, are not authorised by the FSA to approach UK investors. Although they are commonly known as recovery rooms, they will not buy your shares or recover money you have invested through Wills & Co.
Always check the FSA Register to make sure a firm is authorised before doing business with them. If they're not authorised by the FSA and things go wrong you won't have access to UK complaints and compensation procedures.
Who does this affect?
Any investors who brought shares through Wills & Co.
What should you do next?
Let us know if you are contacted by an unauthorised firm by completing our online reporting form. Or you can call our Consumer Contact Centre on 0845 606 1234 (call rates may vary)
The first hearing of the FSA's petition for the winding up of Wills & Co Stockbrokers took place on 28 April 2010 and a full hearing is expected to take place in July 2010.
The date and further details of the hearing will be published on this section of the FSA website when they are confirmed.
We have become aware that former customers of Wills & Co have received calls from individuals claiming to be part of an FSA investigation team. The callers have asked for information including names, addresses, national insurance numbers and details of the investments they held at Wills & Co.
These calls have not come from the FSA. We will never contact you out of the blue and ask you to provide or confirm personal information. You should be wary of these types of calls and we strongly advise that you do not respond to them in any way. Where the FSA does contact you directly, for example in response to a query you have raised with the FSA, you should take the individual's name and number and ask to call them back through the FSA switchboard on 0207 066 1000.
If you are in doubt about the authenticity of a communication from the FSA, please contact 0845 606 1234.
The FSA has lodged a petition for the winding up of Wills & Co Stockbrokers Limited in the High Court. The petition is due to be heard on 28 April 2010. Anyone wishing to be heard at the hearing needs to write to Peter Wright at the Financial Services Authority, 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HS by 4.00pm on 27 April 2010 to give formal notice of their intention to appear at the hearing. The formal notice should include:
- the interested party's name and address;
- whether they intend to support or oppose the petition; and
- the amount and nature of their debt.
Wills & Co had issued a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) proposal to its creditors, although this has been withdrawn until further notice while it liaises with the FSA regarding its proposals for a CVA.
As the CVA proposal has been withdrawn there is no need for creditors with claims against the company to return any of the proposal documents that were provided to them. The meeting scheduled to consider the proposal on 29 March 2010 at 2.00pm has accordingly been cancelled.
Wills & Co has written to its customers to explain the action taken by the FSA and to explain to those customers who have accounts with Wills & Co that their accounts will be transferred either to Pritchard Stockbrokers Limited or to The Share Centre Limited. If, after the transfer takes place, customers want to use another broking firm, they are free to do so.
Customers will also receive a letter from the stockbroker their account is being transferred to. If customers have any questions regarding the transfer of their account, they should contact that stockbroker using the contact details in the letter.
If, having considered the findings of the FSA’s investigation, customers believe they have received unsuitable advice, they should complain to Wills & Co. If Wills & Co is unable to pay eligible compensation claims, then the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will consider customer claims – see Compensation.
Please be aware that there is no charge for making a complaint. There are companies that specialise in making complaints on behalf of customers for a fee or a proportion of any compensation that is awarded – you should consider carefully whether you want to pay for this service. The FSCS is a free service designed for consumers to seek compensation without the need for specialist financial services knowledge or legal advice.
Customers do not need to do anything in respect of the wind down of Wills & Co. The firm will be writing to those directly affected in the near future, providing more information and instructions of what to do next.
We have stopped Wills & Co Stockbrokers Limited (Wills & Co) from giving investment advice, because of its poor sales practices. This includes poor risk warnings and misleading information to its high-risk penny share customers. The firm will no longer be able to provide recommendations to retail customers on buying shares.
Wills & Co is in the process of:
- winding down its business (the firm does not hold any client assets and shares bought by investors through Wills & Co are held with a separate clearing firm that is regulated by the FSA); and
- transferring its customers to another FSA-regulated firm, so that customers can access their investments. If, after that, customers want to use another broking firm, they are free to do so.
The firm is going to write to its customers setting out details of the transfer shortly.
Who does this affect?
Anyone with an account with Wills & Co or anyone who no longer has an account but bought shares between 1 November 2007 and 28 July 2009.
What should affected customers do next?
You do not need to do anything in respect of the transfer and wind down of Wills & Co. The firm will be writing to its customers to update them on the situation.
If you received advice from Wills & Co, you should consider the findings of the FSA investigation which will be set out in the letter that the firm will send you.
Whether the advice was unsuitable or not depends on your own particular circumstances. Investing in shares carries risk, so just because an investment has gone down in value does not automatically mean you have received unsuitable advice.
If you feel you have been given unsuitable advice and would like to make a complaint, you should contact Wills & Co in the first instance at 33 Queen Street, London, EC4R 1AP.
If you don’t hear from Wills & Co within eight weeks of sending in your complaint, you have an outstanding complaint, or you are not satisfied with Wills & Co’s response, you can refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (the Ombdusman) for their review. For more information, see the Financial products or services section in If things go wrong.
If Wills & Co is unable to pay eligible compensation claims, then the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will consider customer claims – see Compensation.
Further information
FSA final notice (pdf)
FSA press release
News articles on this website are accurate, to the best of our knowledge, only at the date of publication. If the information they contain changes, follow-up articles may be published.
