As the decade comes to a close, it is clearer than ever that victims of investment fraud need justice. The dirtiest stain on society is that of pension and investment fraud. Scammers have made fortunes out of pension and investment scams in the UK and across the globe – in all leading expat jurisdictions. With […]
Victims of Investment Fraud need Justice Read More »
The Kiwis were grass and England was a lawnmower. For a couple of hours we forgot Brexit and remembered our national pride. In a Week that saw an inconclusive result in the UK v Europe match (yet again), at least England taught New Zealand how to play rugby. And the battle against pension scams moved
Pension Life – Pension File October 2019 Read More »
Jody Smart (or Bell or Kirby or whatever name she uses now) appeared in the Criminal Court in Denia on 1st October 2019. As one of the group of defendants in the fraud trial – including her former partner Darren Kirby (who didn’t turn up) – she testified about her involvement in the £100 million
Jody Smart of CWM – courting justice Read More »
Mail on Sunday’s Laura Shannon met a group of victims of the Continental Wealth Management scam in Denia in July 2019. Here is a link to her excellent article Continental Wealth Management – “Plunder in paradise”: MAIL ON SUNDAY ARTICLE All power to her, this young lady put all other would-be investigative journalists to shame.
Continental Wealth Management – “Plunder in paradise” Read More »
Fighting pension scams needs to be done logically and methodically. Decent advisers need to use high standards to help fight scams. If these standards become the norm, the scammers won’t survive and flourish so easily. Fighting pension scams – Qualifications Most qualified advisers want nothing to do with pension scams. Many offshore firms employ advisers
Fighting pension scams – Qualifications Read More »
Fighting pension scams: Regulation If it was easy to stop pension scams, everyone would be doing it. Clearing up the mess left behind a pension scam is a huge challenge. This is why clear international standards need to be recognised and adopted. The scammers are like flocks of vultures. If people only used regulated firms,
Fighting pension scams: Regulation Read More »
A SLICE OF THE ACTION by Joshua Parfitt of the Olive Press EXCLUSIVE: Expats who lost millions to dodgy finance firm CWM fear action group boss may be scamming them too. It is a sad fact that people who have been victims of a scam will never fully trust anybody ever again. One thousand people
Olive Press Article on Continental Wealth Management Read More »
HOW DO PENSION SCAMS WORK? Every pension scam starts with a negligent transfer. Ceding providers hand over millions of pounds to pension scammers every year. Firms – from Aviva to Zurich – ignore warnings by regulators and HMRC. The providers tick their boxes; the scammers make their millions; the victims are ruined. The ceding providers
Transferring pensions to scammers – the ABC of shame Read More »
I read an interesting article recently which has prompted this blog, written by Blair duQuesnay, CFA®, CFP® – an investment adviser at Ritholtz Wealth Management, LLC. Blair suggests that the most important change needed in the financial industry is qualifications. Poorly qualified advisers give poor investment advice. Bad investments advice leads to loss of funds. Blair has
Raising standards – financial advisers and qualifications Read More »
In every pension scam there is one beginning, lots of middles, and always a wretched ending for the victim and a profitable ending for the scammers. The beginning is always a negligent, lazy, box-ticking transfer by a ceding provider – the worst of which always tend to be the likes of Standard Life, Prudential, Scottish
Who killed the pension? Scammers; ceding providers; introducers; HMRC? Read More »
The mis-selling of life assurance policies and long-term savings plans has been a regular topic in our blogs. Many victims of pension scams see their funds mis-invested into life assurance policies. These life assurance policies do little more than drain the fund value with their expensive fees and costs. Generali has for years been aggressively
Generali – jumping ship to avoid new regulations? Read More »
Ten Essential Standards For Pension Advice: The ongoing war against pension scammers continues with no sign that the end is near. The authorities stand idly by – facilitating mis-selling and outright fraud. HMRC happily registers pension scam after scam after scam (followed by tax demands). Prosecutions are few and far between. The only conclusive way to
Ten Essential Standards For Pension Advice Read More »
