The Financial Conduct Authority has cancelled the permissions and authorisation of IFA Frensham Wealth Limited, saying it had "serious concerns" with the firm’s compliance to threshold conditions.
In a final notice published today (April 4), the FCA said it has cancelled Frensham Wealth’s Part 4A Permissions.
It said: “The reason for this action is that, upon the issuing of the first supervisory notice, the Part 4A permission of Frensham Wealth limited was varied to remove all regulated activities.
“As a result, there are no longer any regulated activities for which Frensham Wealth has permission. The authority is satisfied that it is no longer necessary to keep the Part 4A permission of Frensham Wealth Limited in force, and accordingly, the Authority must cancel the Part 4A permission of Frensham Wealth Limited.”
This comes after the FCA revoked the IFA’s Part 4A permissions in a supervisory notice published last year (November 26), saying it had no confidence about the firm’s activities at the time, as its website was still live and still advertising advice services to clients.
At the time, the FCA said Frensham Wealth was continuing to advise clients after its sole adviser lost his permissions in September 2021.
The firm had also informed the regulator that it would transfer its customer business to another authorised firm but had not suggested that it will employ additional resources prior to this, the FCA said.
The FCA first took action against sole director Jon Frensham in October 2020, following a 2017 conviction for grooming.
Although Frensham's actions were not finance related, the regulator found him not to be a fit and proper person and removed his permissions to perform his current senior management functions while issuing a prohibition order against him.
However, the adviser referred the decision to the Upper Tribunal, which sided with the FCA, leading to a ban in September.
The FCA said the decision which gave rise to this final notice was made by an enforcement decision maker of the regulator.
