Warning Harlequin SIPP investments breach lending limits

Regulatory Legal Solicitors has reviewed contracts where investors have invested in a Caribbean property with Harlequin - a UK-based overseas property sales agent that is not regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - via a SIPP. Both the pension adviser and the SIPP itself appear in all cases to have missed the limitation on lending where pension schemes are involved, the law firm said. Under SIPP rules, the maximum that can be borrowed to finance a property purchase and development is restricted to 50% of the fund's net assets, less any existing borrowings. Regulatory ...