Financial support for members impacted by Philips Trust Corporation

We are pleased to confirm that we will be offering financial support to members impacted by the collapse of Philips Trust Corporation.

We feel deeply saddened and frustrated to hear of the financial loss and significant distress experienced by those of our members whose assets ended up with the Philips Trust Corporation.

As the administration process has progressed, the scale and complexity of the problems faced by these members has come to light. We have been working hard for some months to better understand the situation and how we can support our members.

Many members impacted have kindly supported our enquiries as we’ve worked through this complex issue. Thank you for sharing your stories. We want to say to all members affected that we are truly sorry you’ve ended up in this position.

Today’s announcement is a key milestone as we commit to supporting members affected by the actions and administration of Philips Trust Corporation. It means we will be providing financial support for all members that the Nottingham Building Society originally referred to The Will Writing Company between 2011 and 2018 and have subsequently ended up in the Philips Trust administration process.

What does this announcement mean for you?

Support will be provided where a customer was initially referred by one of the societies to the Will Writing Company/Estate Planning Group/Family Trust Corporation and where Philips Trust Corporation subsequently became a trustee of their trust and remained so at the point of administration, or, as at the date of its administration, Philips Trust Corporation held an investment on behalf of their trust and continues to do so. Support will be directed towards:

Trusts involving investments: re-establishing 100% of each customer’s Philips Trust Corporation investment balance (i.e. each customer’s Accepted Claim as verified by Kroll, the administrators).

Accepted Claims are verified as part of the Distribution Plan approved by the court on 31^st March, 2023. Offers will be valid for 6 months on a full and final basis. In view of the voluntary support, the society will look to ensure that any future recoveries from the investments which become available for distribution will be used to reimburse the society, up to the amount of the voluntary payment made.
Trusts involving a property: providing up to £2,400 towards the cost of replacing Philips Trust Corporation as trustee and appointing a new trustee.

This is applicable both to customers who have already transferred their trust away from Philips Trust Corporation after the date of the administration and for those customers who have yet to do so. This will be inclusive of any support already provided to customers involving the appointment of new trustees.
The small number of investment-only trusts: providing a financial contribution towards replacing Philips Trust Corporation as trustee and appointing a new trustee, the cost of which is yet to be determined.

Providing support to members on voluntary basis

Nottingham Building Society never had any relationship with the Philips Trust Corporation, and there is no legal or regulatory responsibility for us to provide support. However, as a mutual building society, we believe it is right to help affected members.

The level of financial support is significant for a building society of our size, so we have considered the needs of all our members as we have moved through this. We believe our voluntary support strikes a balance between those members affected as much as possible in incredibly difficult circumstances, with the needs of our wider membership.

We are also committed, on behalf of members affected, to supporting any initiative that holds the directors of Philips Trust to account. Alongside other building societies, we will consider any further action possible and update members on this.

What happens next?

There are still some complex issues we need to work through, but we will be doing this as quickly as possible. We will be working with Kroll, the administrators, to help us to distribute the payments to the trusts held. There is no action required by customers at this time.

Affected customers will be contacted directly by Kroll with a further update by the end of May. Further updates and information will also appear on these pages of our website.

In the meantime, if you have a question please email us or complete our online enquiry form.

Email trustcustomers@thenottingham.com Complete online enquiry form

We would like to thank you again for your patience as we have worked through this complex issue.

Statement from Sue Hayes, Nottingham Building Society Chief Executive

“Members impacted by the actions and administration of Philips Trust have experienced a terrible chain of events and we hope today’s announcement provides some comfort.

As a mutual, we want to stand behind those members and we believe our whole community would wish us to do so. We believe the significant financial support outlined today achieves that whilst balancing the interest of the wider membership.

We have been working hard for a number of months to unravel the facts in this hugely complex situation. We would like to thank the many members that have supported our enquiries. We have been deeply saddened and frustrated to hear their stories and are truly sorry they have ended up in this position.

Our focus now is on providing these voluntary payments as quickly as possible.

Alongside others, we will continue to support action to hold Philips Trust to account.”

Background

From 2011 to 2018, Nottingham Building Society had an arrangement in place whereby members were referred to The Will Writing Company (“TWWC”) for advice with will writing and estate planning. TWWC was not required to be regulated though it chose to become regulated by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority from 2016 onwards. Some members set up trusts and transferred funds into those trusts. Those funds were placed in high-quality investments, supported by independent financial advice. In 2018, The Will Writing Company went into administration at which point NBS ceased making any member referrals.

Subsequently, an entirely separate company, Philips Trust Corporation (“PTC”), contacted these members to change their trust arrangements. This resulted in some members transferring their investments and trust assets to PTC. The investments were moved into very different investments than their original high-quality investments.

PTC went into administration in April 2022. Since then, it has become evident that some members have incurred losses as a result. Others have incurred considerable costs and inconvenience as they have sought to regain control of properties held in trust by PTC. 