The British Financial Conduct Authority has persuaded the High Court to put Beaufort Securities, the struggling City brokerage, into administration and Beaufort Asset Clearing Services into special administration.

The court appointed Russell Downs, Dan Schwarzmann and Nigel Rackham of PwC as joint administrators of Beaufort Securities (which caters mainly to HNW retail clients) and joint special administrators of BACS (the brokerage's corporate client arm).

Legal Force, the claims specialist firm, has for a while now been successfully helping many clients of Beaufort Securities claim compensation for their mis-sold SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) investments.

The firms employ around 100 members of staff at a main office in the City of London (St Mary Axe) and regional offices in Bristol and Colwyn Bay. Up to 20,000 clients have invested in products such as ISAs and pensions. PwC says that 'customer entitlements' include £50 million of clients' money and £650 million in clients' assets.

Yesterday the FCA required the firms to cease all regulated activity and not to dispose of any of their assets without first obtaining its consent. The firms have ceased trading.  

The priority for the administrators is to identify, protect and, in due course, return clients' money and assets to the rightful clients to the fullest extent possible. There will be a slight delay while they assess the situation.  

One of their first jobs will be, in PwC's words, "to determine the completeness of the segregated funds and assets compared with clients’ entitlements to form an early assessment of the indicative recovery available."

The firms are no longer allowed to complete any pending trade, commence any new trade, act on any corporate action, act on any instruction to move cash or assets to new firms, provide any specific guidance or advice.

In the coming weeks the administrators will develop and publish a plan for the return of client portfolios and holdings to new firms. They will also be taking steps to realise the firms’ own assets and assess their liabilities.

A helpline, operational from 11:30 am this morning, has been set up on 0800 063 9283 for the UK and +44 (0)20 7293 0227 for elsewhere.