September 2026 – update
The joint special administrators, Teneo, together with their legal advisers and King’s Counsel (senior barrister), have developed a Distribution Plan designed to facilitate the return of the remaining custody assets.
This is to allow your custody assets to be distributed in advance of the resolution of the ongoing disputes.
Court hearing
We are pleased to confirm that a Court hearing has now been scheduled for 23 November 2026 to consider the proposed Distribution Plan. Securing a hearing date is an important milestone and provides greater certainty regarding the next stages of the client asset return process. The Court will consider the proposed Distribution Plan and, if approved, this will enable the Joint Special Administrators to begin implementing the distribution process in accordance with its terms.
Please note that the timeline remains outside of our control and is subject to Court approval. However, now that a clear proposal is in place, we expect your remaining 20% of invested custody assets to be released at the beginning of next year.
As a reminder, your invested custody assets are present, reconciled, clean and not subject to dispute.
Note of apology and thank you
We are deeply sorry for the distress that this situation has caused. On behalf of everyone at Chelsea, we would like to thank you for your continued patience and understanding. We are sorry that this process is taking far longer than anyone anticipated.
We will continue to monitor developments closely and provide further updates as more information becomes available.
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July 2026 – Update
We are pleased to let you know that the joint special administrators, Teneo, together with their legal advisors and King’s Counsel (senior barrister), have developed a Distribution Plan designed to release the return of the remaining custody assets.
This is to allow your custody assets to be distributed in advance of the resolution of the ongoing disputes.
As a reminder, your invested custody assets are present, reconciled, clean and not subject to dispute.
Please note that the timeline remains outside of our control and is subject to regulatory review and court approval. However, this is a significant milestone and provides a clear route towards the return of the remaining assets. Based on the current proposal, the joint special administrators are aiming to return your custody assets by the end of this year or the beginning of 2027.
Thank you once again for your continued patience and understanding. We will provide a further update, including a more definitive timeline, as soon as more information becomes available.
As always, if you have any questions, or need any help with your investments, please feel free to contact us on 020 7384 7300 or at info@chelseafs.co.uk.
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February 2026 – Update
The next key milestone is confirmation of the court hearing date. We have been advised
that this hearing is currently scheduled for early March.
We appreciate how frustrating the length of this process has been, but we hope this
represents an encouraging step forward.
While insolvency and legal proceedings can inevitably take time and the timetable remains
outside of our control, the process would appear to be moving in the right direction.
Our understanding is that the joint special administrators, Teneo, are also actively exploring
ways to progress matters as efficiently as possible for our customers.
As always, we will keep you informed as soon as any further information becomes available.
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December 2025 – As we approach the end of 2025, we all remain very disappointed that the process has not reached a conclusion. We appreciate how frustrating this delay is.
Court hearing
We are expecting to receive confirmation of the court hearing date in January and are confident that this hearing will take place during the first quarter of 2026.
Remaining 20%
As previously confirmed, the remaining 20% of your assets continues to be invested and therefore subject to normal market movements. Where applicable, income from 100% of your assets continues to be paid or reinvested for you.
On behalf of everyone at Chelsea, we would like to thank you for your continued patience and understanding throughout this process.
Please be assured that we are here to help and if you would like to discuss the situation, or have any other questions about your investments, please feel free to contact us on 020 7384 7300 or at info@chelseafs.co.uk.
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November 2025 – As you will be aware, in June 2024, the joint special administrators, Teneo, released 80% of your invested assets and these assets were transferred to our new Chelsea Platform, powered by Platform One. This is an update on the remaining 20% of your assets.
The next key step is for Teneo to submit a distribution plan for court approval. Once this plan is approved, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will be able to cover the costs for Chelsea’s customers, allowing the remaining assets to be distributed.
Unfortunately, the timeline continues to be delayed because of an ongoing dispute with a professional client. We have also been advised that additional reconciliation matters have been identified in connection with a separate wealth manager claim, which are now subject to third-party review as part of the administrators’ process.
As a reminder, there is no dispute regarding the ownership of Chelsea’s customers’ invested assets.
Return of the remaining customer assets
Teneo have confirmed that they are working with their lawyers to determine what might be possible to “concertina” the timeline – in other words, to shorten the process. One option they are exploring is separating the assets into two groups – “undisputed” and “disputed”, which may help speed things up.
However, disappointingly, Teneo have confirmed that it could take a further 20 months before all customer assets are returned. However, there are also a few factors that could help bring this forward further, including:
- The ability of Teneo to progress the distribution plan alongside the dispute with the professional client.
- The early resolution of the other wealth manager’s work.
We understand your frustration
We completely understand how frustrating and disappointing these ongoing delays are, particularly given that:
- The assets belonging to Chelsea’s customers have always been securely held by IBP’s sub-custodian, Aegon Institutional.
- These assets have been fully accounted for, accurately identified and independently reconciled many months ago.
- Teneo’s decision to release 80% of the assets, in our view, reflects their confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the holdings. The FCA also confirmed that the custody assets were fully accounted for and gave consent for the return of 80% of them.
- There has never been any dispute over the ownership of Chelsea’s clients’ invested assets.
- Income from 100% of your assets, where applicable, has continued to be paid monthly since March 2024, further confirming their presence and reconciliation.
In our opinion, it is deeply unfair that these assets have still not been fully returned to clients because of what appears to be a flawed process. Our understanding is that Teneo has already informed the FCA that the special administration process is flawed for this purpose.
Remaining 20%
As previously confirmed, this portion of your assets remains invested and continues to experience normal market fluctuations. Once the remaining 20% is transferred, all of your assets will be held in one place.
New Chelsea Platform
Please let us know if you would like any help with your Chelsea Platform account. Chelsea remains committed to providing its services through the usual channels so that you remain in direct contact with our experienced and helpful staff.
We are deeply sorry for the distress this situation continues to cause and would like to thank you sincerely for your continued patience and understanding. The impact of these delays has been felt widely, affecting not just our valued customers but also our staff, friends and families.
Please be assured that we are doing everything within our power to bring this horrible process to a conclusion. We remain fully committed to ensuring the safe and complete release of all customer assets and will continue to advocate strongly on your behalf until the matter is fully resolved.
Your invested assets remain safe, securely held, and continue to perform in line with market movements. Whilst the delays are frustrating for everyone involved, we remain optimistic that the resolution could come sooner than currently indicated.
We will continue to keep you informed as new information becomes available and will continue to provide updates on our website at www.chelseafs.co.uk/platformupdate.
We are here to help and if you would like to discuss the situation, or have any other questions, please feel free to contact us on 020 7384 7300 or at info@chelseafs.co.uk.
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October 2025 – We regret that we are still unable to provide a timeline for resolution.
The key procedural step remains for the joint special administrators, Teneo, to submit a distribution plan for court approval. Once approved, this will enable the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to cover the costs for Chelsea’s clients so that the remaining assets can be distributed.
The timeline remains delayed because of the ongoing dispute with a professional client, which is preventing the administrators from committing to a precise schedule.
Teneo have told us that they are working with their lawyers to determine what might be possible to “concertina” the timeline – in other words, to shorten the process.
We are hoping that they will be able to explore separating the assets into two categories – “undisputed” and “disputed”, so they can achieve this.
As a reminder, there is no dispute regarding the ownership of Chelsea’s customers’ assets.
We continue to actively press all parties involved and will share a clear timeline with you as soon as one is available.
In the meantime, thank you once again for your continued patience. If you would like any help with your investments or if you would like to simply talk things through, please do not hesitate to contact our experienced and helpful staff – we are here to help.
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September 2025 – Progress unfortunately continues to be much slower than we would all like.
These delays are very frustrating, especially considering that:
- The assets held by Chelsea’s customers have always been present and securely held by IBP’s sub-custodian, Aegon Institutional.
- Teneo completed their reconciliation of the Aegon assets in March 2024 and so these assets have been accurately identified and independently reconciled by Teneo for a significant amount of time.
- In our opinion Teneo’s decision to release 80% of the assets highlights their confidence in the integrity of the holdings.
- Income from 100% of the assets, where applicable, has been distributed monthly since March 2024, confirming their presence and reconciliation.
- There is no dispute regarding the ownership of Chelsea’s customers’ assets.
- We are actively pressing all parties involved and will share a clear timeline with you as soon as one is available.
In the meantime, we once again thank you for your continued patience. If you would like any help with your investments or if you would like to simply talk things through please do not hesitate to contact our experienced and helpful staff – we are here to help.
June 2025 – Regrettably, there is no further update at this time.
We are continuing to work tirelessly to try and find a resolution. Teneo (the joint special administrator) are working with the legal counsel and are actively making progress. While we are unable to provide a timeline at this stage, we will be in touch as soon as one becomes available.
Thank you for your ongoing patience, and should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our experience and helpful staff.
April 2025 – Unfortunately, we do not have any further update at this time.
We do, as we are sure our valued customers would expect, continue to work tirelessly to try to find a resolution and are all deeply disappointed that the matter remains unresolved.
We continue to pursue every avenue to try to get the joint special administrators to release our customer assets.
Thank you for your continued patience during this difficult time.
Our experience and helpful staff remain on hand should you require any assistance.
March 2025 – Unfortunately, there is no further update, following the February 2025 update.
Timelines and Next Steps
It has been, and continues to be, not possible for Chelsea to provide definitive updates to our customers as this is very much in the hands of Teneo as the administrators of IBP.
We consistently chase Teneo for updates in relation to milestones within the administration but have been met with an ever-evolving picture as is not uncommon in the course of any insolvency process.
The next milestone is for Teneo to submit a distribution plan for court approval. Once this plan is approved, the final administration costs can be determined, allowing the FSCS to cover the costs of the administration and facilitate the release of the remaining assets.
Teneo has confirmed they are exploring other potential solutions to return assets. Indeed, the statutory objective of the administration is to ensure the return of client money and custody assets as soon as reasonably practicable. The previous unexpected 80/20 distribution, which was approved by the FSCS and the FCA, has shown that there can be some flexibility in this difficult process.
We were able to meet with the FCA in late February and have once again appealed to them. We continue to actively explore all possible options and will share a timeline for resolution as soon as we are able to.
February 2025 – Client update available here.
IBP Markets Ltd (IBP) was placed into Special Administration on 13 October 2023 and Teneo Financial Advisory Limited have been appointed as Special Administrators.
