Tag: CWM

  • Generali – jumping ship to avoid new regulations?

    Generali – jumping ship to avoid new regulations?

    Pension Life Blog - Generali jumping shipThe 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 peddling these toxic products.  Interestingly, they have just pulled their contractual savings plans – Vision and Choice – from the UAE market.  Interesting and attractive names for profoundly ugly, expensive and destructive products.

    We have to wonder if all the negative press surrounding Generali’s life assurance bonds has anything to do with it? Since 2016 there has been a huge rise in complaints surrounding the mis-selling of these products. With huge, concealed start-up costs, the funds rarely ever reach their original investment amount, let alone make a gain.

    Furthermore, there has been a third push on regulations to improve how savings, investment and life insurance policies are sold. AND the Spanish insurance regulator (DGS) just confirmed that all such products sold in Spain have been done so illegally But Mr Vitiello of Generali claimed their decision to stop selling the Vision and Choice products in the Emirates was not linked to the new regulations. REALLY?!?!

    Reported by The National. ae, Generali’s Marco Vitiello stated:

    “We will not be accepting any new business applications for our current unit-linked saving products,” said Vitiello – General Manager of Generali’s Dubai branch. “There will be no impact at all to existing clients and contracts. They will continue to be serviced in the same manner as before.”  In other words, they will just keep on losing money, being tied in for an unacceptable length of time and paying extortionate charges.

    This is not the only big change Generali has made this month. The National.ae also reported that:

    “Generali’s decision to stop distributing its contractual savings plans in the UAE came less than a week after the company sold its entire shareholding in its unit, Generali Worldwide Insurance, to the Guernsey-based Utmost Group”

    We wrote about the proposed merger between Generali and Utmost Group back in August 2018.

    Pension Life Blog - Generali - jumping ship to avoid new regulations?

    The Utmost Group now has over £33bn in assets under administration and over 240,000 customers. We can only hope that customers of The Utmost Group will not become victims of mis-sold life assurance policies like the ones of Generali.

    Generali was one of the culprits involved in the huge Continental Wealth Management pension scam, which saw as many as 1,000 victims, invested into high-risk, toxic, professional-investor-only structured notes.

    Whilst the bulk of the victims were placed into OMI bonds, at least 25 (but probably nearer 100) of the victims were placed into Generali bonds by the scammers. The sum total of 25 pension funds invested into these toxic insurance bonds was a whopping £6,314,672. The losses on this amount are calculated to be approximately £3,604,528.

    One victim invested £793,612 and has just £62,703 left! Losing a massive £730,909.

    Another victim invested £142,626 and has lost £90,618! Leaving him with a fund of just £52,028.

    Please note these figures are correct as at 2017/2018, so today’s value is now even lower. Despite the funds’ huge decrease in value, Generali continues to take their fees (based on the original amount deposited – not the current depleted value). Therefore, these amounts will continue to fall AND despite the massive loses be locked in for a fixed term.

    It is, of course, a relief to know that they have decided to stop peddling these toxic, inappropriate bonds to victims. But we can’t help wondering why Generali have suddenly done this and really feel for those already caught up in these bogus “life” policies. Seems to us Generali are jumping ship to avoid the new regulations. With sudden revelations that maybe they should have checked all the details just a little bit more – and declined to take business from unregulated scammers.

    As Generali are busy making changes and sales, we can only hope that compensating the victims of the CWM scam is on their to-do list. As they have sold their entire shareholdings, you might think that an honest firm would want to make right the wrongs they have done.

     

    Not only did Generali allow these 25 victims to be put into wholly inappropriate funds and high-risk structured notes, but these investment instructions were also accepted from unregulated advisers. The scammers were paid high commissions by Generali and there is no sign of any remorse for the huge losses suffered by the victims.

    What we do know is that victims are now preparing their complaints against Generali and CWM. The DGS has found that there is no doubt that the regulations of sale surrounding these products were breached by Generali.

    Generali are not the only life office guilty of financial crimes: Old Mutual International and SEB were even worse – facilitating losses on a massive scale in the Continental Wealth Management case.  OMI bought £94,000,000 worth of ultra-high-risk structured notes for retail investors – resulting in huge losses.  Old Mutual was also heavily involved in more than £1,000,000,000 worth of losses in the Axiom, LM and Premier investment scams.

    Seems it is no accident that “Generali” is an anagram of “Liar Gene”.

     

     

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  • Ten Essential Standards For Pension Advice

    Ten Essential Standards For Pension Advice

    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 stop scammers is to ensure there are no victims for them to scam. AND the only way to do this is to educate consumers and drum the TEN STANDARDS into them.

    PENSION SCAMMERS MUST BE STOPPED!

    Ten Essential Standards For Pension Advice:

    Do you know what a pension scammer looks like? The unfortunate answer is, he looks like any other Tom, Dick or Harry (or James, Stephen or Darren) walking down the street. Not only is he good at disguises, he also has the gift of the gab and he will have you convinced that the pension transfer he is offering you will pave the rest of your life with gold. In reality though, the gold will be short lived (or non-existent), and some or all of your fund will probably go poof! (along with the adviser).

    Pension Life Blog - Ten essential standards for every adviser and their firmMuch as a master illusionist takes your breath away with his magic, a master scammer takes your money away with his silver tongue. You will be left wondering just how this smart-looking, sleek-talking ‘adviser’ managed to leave your pension – and probably your life – in tatters. 

    We have compiled a list of ten standards that EVERY firm offering pension advice should adhere to.  Every qualified adviser working for an advisory firm should also be able to meet all of these standards. On Facebook recently, one reader stated: “Why would anyone respond to an unsolicited offer to manage their money from a complete stranger?” The answer is, “I don’t know, but they do!“.  So, get to know a financial adviser long before you let them anywhere near your finances.  

    In the case of Capita Oak, for example, we saw many targeted victims who were struggling financially.  So, the offer of a lump sum release and the opportunity of an investment that promised “guaranteed returns” was music to their ears.

    Pension Life Blog - Ten essential standards for every adviser and their firm

    Many of the victims didn’t stop to think; didn’t pause to ask the right questions; or do any research to make sure the pension offer came from a viable, credible, regulated firm. The victims just said “yes” as they thought the transfer would make life easier.

    For example, with the awful benefit of hindsight – six years on – the Capita Oak victims are grappling with tax demands from HMRC and the possibility that the investment they are trapped in will go into liquidation.  These people all wish they had stopped and thought before going ahead.

    Sadly, the Capita Oak members who were defrauded by a bunch of scammers, (many of which are under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office) such as XXXX, Stuart Chapman-Clarke and Stephen Ward, are not alone.  Thousands of other victims of both UK-based and offshore scams and mis-selling are facing similar regrets: these include victims of scams such as Evergreen New Zealand QROPS; Fast Pensions, Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund/STM Fidecs; Blackmore Global Fund; and Continental Wealth Management.

    Mastermind serial scammer Stephen Ward has orchestrated a whole array of different scams over the last nine years.  One of the biggest ones was Continental Wealth Management – a 1,000-victim scam. Ward was once a fully qualified and registered adviser and a pension trustee. He has destroyed dozens of pensions funds and thousands of victims’ lives. Yet he has never been prosecuted or forced to pay back even one penny of his victims’ losses.  Only at the end of 2018 was he finally banned from being a pension trustee. 

    Most of the known scams used cold-calling techniques to reel in their victims. Whilst we saw a cold-calling ban on pension sales in 2019, we have already had reports that sneaky firms have changed their scripts to avoid fines. AND we are now seeing scammers focus their targets back onto expats. Which makes us worry there will be more QROPS disasters in the pipeline from now on.

    Just a few minutes of research – as well as knowing the right questions to ask and understanding what standards an adviser and firm should adhere to – could have prevented past victims from losing so much of their precious pension pots.  We can’t change what happened in the past – other than to take action against the scammers and negligent advisers – but we can help consumers understand what they should be looking for in an adviser:

    STANDARDS ACCREDITATION CHECKLIST FOR FINANCIAL ADVISERS:

    1. Proof of regulation for all services provided by the firm and individual advisers in the jurisdiction where advice is given
    2. Evidence of appropriate qualifications and CPD for all advisers
    3. Professional Indemnity Insurance
    4. Details of how fact finds are carried out, and how clients’ risk profiles are determined and adhered to
    5. Details of the firm’s compliance procedures – assuring clients of the highest possible standards
    6. Clear and consistent explanation and justification of the use of insurance bonds for pensions and investments
    7. Clear policy on structured notes, UCIS and in-house funds, non-standard assets and commission-paying investments
    8. Full disclosure of all fees, charges and commissions on all products and services at time of sale, in writing
    9. Account of how clients are updated on fund/portfolio performance
    10. Evidence of customer complaints made, rejected or upheld and redress paid

    If the firm you are thinking about using for your pension transfer do not adhere to all of these standards, find one that does. Your pension pot is your life savings – so don’t entrust it to any old unregulated firm or dishonest scammer.  Remember, thousands of victims have already failed to ask the above ten questions – and will regret it for the rest of their lives.

  • Death of the Life Bond (Life of the Death Bond?)

    Death of the Life Bond (Life of the Death Bond?)

    Attention financial advisers in Spain/who provide financial advice to Spanish residents.            

    18th February 2019

     

    DEATH OF THE LIFE BOND:

    The Spanish insurance and pensions regulator, the DGS, made a judgment against Costa Blanca-based Continental Wealth Management (CWM) on 10.1.2019.  The order (translated and summarised below) confirmed that there are strict regulations in Spain for the sale of insurance products.  The DGS also made it clear that even if a firm is not regulated in Spain by the DGS, it must conform to the Spanish regulations.

    The deadline for compliance with the order was Monday 11th February.  Unsurprisingly, CWM failed to comply.  CWM had collapsed in September 2017 and all the scammers who worked for the firm headed for the hills (or Australia).  We are now enforcing this order by criminal action against all those responsible.  This also opens the way for similar action against any other firms who have mis-sold insurance products without complying with the Spanish regulations.

    In certain, limited circumstances, insurance bonds can be beneficial.  But in the vast majority of cases they are entirely mis-sold, and the underlying commissions concealed.  These hidden commissions prevent the funds from growing and have an ever-increasing detrimental effect on the value of the fund.  I have seen evidence of an entire fund being destroyed by irresponsible, risky, commission-laden investments.  The life offices (such as OMI, SEB, FPI, RL360 and Generali) continue to apply their quarterly charges while the funds are being destroyed – sometimes even pushing the funds into negative territory.

    Why should the use of life bonds be strictly controlled?

    I have transcribed the DGS’ judgment below.  It is an abbreviated, translated version of the original.  I also set out below the reasons why life bonds should now be strictly controlled and only sold/advised by qualified, regulated firms.  Once an international standards agreement has been established, it should be possible to ensure that only those firms who understand how to use these products properly will use them in future.

    I hope that all advisers providing insurance advice in Spain – and beyond – will now ensure that losses caused by the mis-selling of life bonds are put right.  I also hope that this policy will be adopted throughout Europe and in all other jurisdictions so that the worldwide mis-selling scandal can finally be ended.

    There will be criminal proceedings – and these will extend to the life offices themselves for profiting from financial crime.  The many victims whose life savings have been destroyed by the life offices and their toxic practices will welcome this news.  The victims themselves know intimately the numerous faults of the life offices:

    • accepting business from (and paying undisclosed commissions to) known scammers and unregulated advisory firms
    • offering high-risk, unregulated funds such as Axiom, LM, Premier New Earth and other no-hoper funds
    • offering professional-investor-only structured notes from providers such as Leonteq, Commerzbank and Nomura
    • reporting the inexorable losses but taking no remedial action
    • locking victims into the expensive, pointless bonds long after the majority of the funds had been destroyed

    This latest development with the DGS judgment will help the victims take action against negligent life offices such as Old Mutual International and Friends Provident International.  This will be a powerful weapon in the recovery process against these parasitic, negligent and greedy insurance companies.

    I set out below, in red, reasons why insurance bonds should now be strictly controlled internationally.  This is not just my opinion – but an order by the Spanish government.  In my view, this is a very sensible and useful order which is in the interests of all consumers throughout Europe and the wider world.

    Decent, ethical, regulated firms will comply with the DGS’ judgment.  The scammers will not.

    ——————————————————————————————————————————————————

    Madrid, 10 January 2019 – Complaints service file number 268/2016

    Chief Inspector of Unit – Ministry of Economy and Enterprise

    Secretary of State for the Economy and Business Support

    General Directorate of Insurance and Pension Funds (DGS)

     

    Article 6 of Law 26/2006, of 17 July, on private insurance and reinsurance mediation, which regulates the general obligations of insurance intermediaries, states:

    “Insurance intermediaries shall provide truthful and sufficient information in the promotion, supply and underwriting of insurance contracts, and, in general, in all their advisory activity….”

    The scammers do not, of course, comply with this regulation.  In fact, scammers rarely tell their clients that they are going to be put into an insurance bond.  Unscrupulous advisers often conceal how the bond will work or for how many years they will be locked in for.  Normally, scammers wave an agreement for an OMI, SEB, Generali, FPI or RL360 bond under the nose of the clients – and ask them to sign the agreement with no explanation.  Rarely do the scammers allow the client to read the document properly, or disclose the commission they will receive from selling the often pointless bond. 

    Victims will be locked into the bond long after they have worked out that the adviser has mis-sold the product purely for the 8% commission – and that the charges will prevent the fund from ever growing.  In fact, even if the underlying asset were to perform reasonably well, it would struggle to keep up with the combination of the bond and adviser costs.

    It is rarely explained that the bond is a bogus life assurance policy (or series of policies); that any life cover is only actually 101% of the original value of the funds the victim has unwittingly placed into the bond.  If all the clients had wanted was life cover in the first place, this product would represent terrible value for money.  The Spanish Supreme Court has already ruled that life assurance policies are void for the purpose of holding investments – because the life office takes no risk. 

    Therefore, the life bond fails on three counts:

    1. it is a useless life assurance policy
    2. it is a useless investment platform
    3. it does not comply with Spanish regulations.  

    I could go on: the life bond is expensive; fails to disclose adviser commissions; offers high-risk, unregulated funds; accepts business from known scammers and unregulated firms; allows professional-investor-only structured notes for retail investors.  The list is endless.

    Article 26 paragraphs 2 and 3 of Law 26/2006, of 17 July, on private insurance and reinsurance mediation, which refers to insurance brokers, establishes the following:

    “Insurance brokers must inform the person who tries to take out the insurance about the conditions of the contract which, in their opinion, it is appropriate to take out and offer the cover which, according to their professional criteria, is best adapted to the needs of the former.  The broker must ensure the client’s requirements will be met effectively by the insurance policy.”

    If the client had stipulated that he needed a life assurance policy (which he usually didn’t), the adviser should have explained fully how and why any product offered fitted the client’s needs.  This virtually never happens.  The adviser has already decided (long before he has even met the client – let alone carried out a fact find) – that he is going to flog him a bond from whichever life company is paying the highest commission.  And this is how so many victims end up with useless insurance products from OMI, SEB, Generali, RL360, Friends Provident International, Hansard, Investors Trust etc.

    Even if the client had specifically asked for – say – £100,000 worth of life cover, these “life” policies could never guarantee to provide that cover.  In a proper, bona fide life assurance contract (where the client pays a monthly premium for the life of the policy) the pay-out is guaranteed.  In these bogus life assurance policies, the value of the pay-out inevitably decreases as the charges eat into the fund.  This is normally the case when disproportionately risky investments are made by the life offices.

    Article 42 of the Private Insurance and Reinsurance Mediation Act, which refers to the information to be provided by the insurance intermediary prior to the conclusion of an insurance contract, provides:

    “Before an insurance contract is concluded, the insurance intermediary must, as a minimum, provide the customer with the following information:

    1. a) The broker’s identity and address.
    2. b) The Register in which the broker is registered, as well as the means of verifying such registration.”

    This rarely happens in practice – unless the broker is one of the very few professional and ethical firms in the expat world.  An adviser might claim to be based in one jurisdiction, but could – in fact – be based in an entirely different one.  “Passporting” is often misused as advisers “fly in under the radar” and provide advice in jurisdictions where they have no legal right to operate.

    Insurance agents must inform the customer of the names of the insurance companies with which they can carry out the mediation activity in the insurance product offered.

    Agents often have terms of business with more than one life office – but will rarely disclose the fact that some or all of them have a long history of facilitating financial crime internationally.

    In order for the client to be able to exercise the right to information about the insurance entities for which they mediate, insurance agents must notify the client of the right to request such information.

    I have never seen an instance of this happening – which is not to say it doesn’t happen.  Just that I haven’t seen it.  But then people don’t come to me when things are going swimmingly – they only come when they have lost some, most or all of their fund.

    Banking and insurance operators must inform their clients that the advice given is provided for the purpose of taking out an insurance policy and not any other product that the credit institution may market.

    And herein lies the problem: the advice is rarely provided for the purpose of taking out an insurance policy – the advice is usually given because the client wants his pension or life savings invested safely, prudently and profitably.  Few – if any – clients come to the adviser to ask for a life assurance policy.  But they get one, whether they need it – or can afford it – or not.

    Insurance brokers must inform the client that they provide advice in accordance with the following obligations:

    “Insurance brokers are obliged to carry out and provide (to the customer) an objective analysis on the basis of a comparison of a sufficient number of insurance contracts offered on the market for the risks to be covered.  Brokers must do this so that they can formulate an objective recommendation.”

    I have never seen an example of an adviser offering a client a selection of possible insurance contracts.  The adviser has normally decided which life product he is going to flog long before the client even walks through the door.  In a normal insurance contract relationship, it is the insurer which takes the risk.  But in life bond contracts, it is the insured who takes the risk – i.e. that his life cover will be substantially lower than that originally contracted and that, indeed, his fund will be severely impaired by the costs of the contract.

    On the basis of information provided by the customer, insurance intermediaries shall specify the requirements and needs of the customer, as well as the reasons justifying any advice they may have given on a particular insurance.  The intermediary must answer all questions raised by the client regarding the function and complexity of the proposed insurance contract.

    I have never seen this happen – which is not to say that it doesn’t happen.  But the adviser could only explain to the customer that the sole purpose of the life bond is to pay him 8% commission.  And that would inevitably spook the customer – so the adviser doesn’t bother.  There will surely be all sorts of flim-flam about the life bond allegedly providing tax efficiency.  However, any real tax savings will be resoundingly eclipsed by the high charges.

    All intermediaries operating in Spain must comply with the rules laid down for reasons of general interest and the applicable rules on the protection of the insured, in accordance with the provisions of Article 65 of the Law on the Mediation of Private Insurance and Reinsurance.

    I have never seen a single instance of an intermediary complying with the DGS rules in Spain or anywhere else.  But that is because I only ever hear about cases where the clients suffer losses.  The people who are well looked after by competent, professional, ethical brokers never bother contacting me – because they don’t need to!  However, I would love to hear from advisers who do abide by the rules.

    Every insurance intermediary is obliged, before the conclusion of the insurance contract, to provide full disclosure.

    Never happens in my experience.  The commission is normally concealed, and the inflexibility of the lock-in period is rarely explained.  The victims usually only find this out after they have realised they have been scammed.

    In the event that a mediator was an Insurance Broker or independent mediator, he is also obliged to give advice in accordance with the obligation to carry out an objective analysis.

    Never happens in my experience.  The adviser/mediator doesn’t use the life assurance product for life assurance, but as a bogus “wrapper” for holding investments.  Therefore, the likely outcome of any objective analysis is very unlikely ever to be fulfilled.

    This must be provided on the basis of the analysis of a sufficient number of insurance contracts offered on the market for the risks to be covered.  The mediator can then formulate a recommendation, using professional criteria, in respect of the insurance contract that would be appropriate to the needs of the client.

    I have never seen an instance of a mediator offering a selection of possible contracts – and there are no risks to be covered, as the insurer takes no risks.  This is why these products have been deemed by the Spanish Supreme Court to be invalid.  However, if a mediator were to offer a “selection” of life bonds, they would all be identical as they are all just as bad as each other.

    In the case in question, there is no evidence that the aforementioned information was provided to the client before the investment product was contracted.  Therefore, Article 42 of the regulations has been breached.

    As it has in just about every instance I have ever seen in Spain – and beyond.  In fact, one firm in Spain – Blevins Franks – only offers one insurance product and that is Lombard.  This is completely illegal.

    Therefore, this Claims Service concludes that the mediator must justify the information and prior advice given to his client, so that the obligations imposed by the Law of Mediation can be understood to be fulfilled with the aim of protecting the insured.  Failure to comply with their obligations could be considered as one of the causes of the damage that would have occurred to their client.

    I have never seen an instance of any firm complying with the obligations imposed by law in Spain.  That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen – and I would love to hear from firms who do comply with this law so that my knowledge can be broadened.  However, if this does happen, it is only likely to be in the case of ethical firms, and they are unlikely to use these bogus life assurance policies anyway.

    The claim is understood to be founded.  In the opinion of this Claims Service, the mediating entity has committed a breach of the regulations regulating the mediation activity – specifically of the provisions of articles 6 and 42 of Law 26/2006 of Mediation of Private Insurance and Reinsurance.

    The DGS requires the mediating entity to account to this Service, within a period of one month from the notification of this report, for the decision adopted in view of it, for the purposes of exercising the powers of surveillance and control that are the responsibility of the Ministry of Economy and Enterprise.

    The entity – Continental Wealth Management – did not, indeed, comply with the DGS’ requirement.  This now gives the green light for this firm and the directors and shadow directors associated with it – as well as the life office which was complicit in this scam – to be subject to criminal proceedings.  The life offices, in this case, were complicit as they were effectively profiting from financial crime.

    The interested parties are informed that there is no appeal to this judgment.  Both the claimant and the mediating entity are made aware of their right to resort to the Courts of Justice to resolve any differences that may arise between them regarding the interpretation and compliance with the regulations in force regarding the mediation of private insurance and reinsurance, in accordance with the provisions of articles 24 and 117 of the Constitution.

    THE DEATH OF THE LIFE BOND

    I think it would be no understatement to say that this heralds the end of the mis-use and abuse of life bonds (also known as portfolio bonds or insurance bonds).  Not just in Spain, but throughout Europe and beyond.  This will be warmly welcomed by the thousands of victims who have lost their life savings to rogue insurance companies such as OMI, SEB, FPI and Generali, and unregulated scammers such as Continental Wealth Management. 

    The ethical sector of the financial advice industry will, of course, be delighted – and there will be a mad scramble by the rogues to find a way round this ruling.  And they will fail. 

  • No more bogus life assurance policies in Spain

    No more bogus life assurance policies in Spain

    The Spanish Insurance Regulator – the DGS (Dirección General de Seguros y Fondos de Pensiones) – has made a most welcome judgment.  This outlaws the mis-selling of bogus life assurance policies as investment “platforms” – aka “life bonds”.  Read the translated summary below.

    The iniquitous practice of scamming victims into these expensive, pointless bonds – so beloved by the “chiringuitos” (scammers) on the Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol for many years – will now result in criminal convictions for the peddlers of these toxic products.

    The DGS’ judgment has provided reinforcement to the earlier Spanish Supreme Court’s ruling that life assurance contracts used to hold “single-premium” investments are invalid.  This heralds a huge step forward in cleaning up the filthy scams which have for so long proliferated in popular British expat communities – making the victims poor and the perpetrators rich.  This evil practice came to a head when scammers Continental Wealth Management collapsed in a pile of debris in September 2017.  The main perps: Darren Kirby, Dean Stogsdill, Anthony Downs, Richard Peasley, Alan Gorringe, Neil Hathaway, Antony Poole all ran for the hills.  Other scammers who played supporting roles – including Stephen Ward, Martyn Ryan and Paul Clarke – slithered away quietly to ply their scams elsewhere.

    The DGS ruling has opened the way for criminal prosecutions against all those at Continental Wealth Management who profited so handsomely from flogging “life bonds” by Old Mutual International (aka OMI and Royal Skandia), Generali and SEB.  While it goes without saying there will be a hearty cheer about the jailing of Darren Kirby and his merry men, they will soon be joined by other individuals who have joined in the bogus life insurance fest just as enthusiastically.  And, of course, the life offices – from OMI, Generali and SEB, to Friends Provident and RL360 – will be treated to a proceeds-of-crime party.

    Guest of honour will, of course, be Peter Kenny of OMI.  But just to make sure nobody feels left out, Hansard and Investors Trust will certainly get their invites.  Maybe Wormwood Scrubs will set up their own wing for life-office scammers.

    It has long seemed curious that such a delightful part of Spain as the Costa Blanca should have fostered such an evil industry.  From the arch scammer himself – Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions, and his many associates including Paul Clarke who was helping him flog Ark before he joined CWM to learn to scam on a much larger scale.  But anywhere along that delightful stretch of coastline running from Valencia to Alicante there are dozens of firms giving the life bond machine plenty of welly.

    So popular is the use of life bonds among the seedier sector of the financial services industry, that multi-national firm Blevins Franks have their own their “exclusive” offering of bogus Lombard bonds.  And you can see why: these scammers earn 8% from flogging these bogus life assurance policies.  That’s 8% for doing nothing – and for trapping their victims into paying back this commission over up to ten years.  Often long after the victims have worked out that the bond serves no purpose except to prevent the funds from ever growing.

    The victims themselves – hundreds of which lost most (or in some cases all) of their life savings to Continental Wealth Management – will indeed see the DGS’ ruling as wonderful news.  They will certainly celebrate the fact that justice has at last prevailed and that the law in Spain has made it clear that selling life assurance policies the traditional scamming way is illegal.

    Continental Wealth Management (CWM – “sister company” to Stephen Ward’s Premier Pension Solutions) was set up initially to provide the cold calling and lead generation services to support Ward’s many scams – including the Evergreen (New Zealand) QROPS scam.  Evergreen was swiftly followed by the Capita Oak and Westminster scams (now under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office).  Unregulated, and staffed by unqualified salesmen who took it in turns to sport grand titles such as “Managing Director” and “Investment Director”, most of these spivs had been car salesmen or estate agents before flogging QROPS and life assurance contracts used to hold the toxic structured notes which destroyed so many millions of pounds’ worth of the victims’ life savings.  Many of these bonds were supplied by Old Mutual International, who despite the huge losses on the funds, continued to take their fees monthly.

    Back in April 2018, OMI and the IOM were defeated by Spanish courts ruling that the jurisdiction in litigation against them for facilitating financial crime should be in Spain. This was a welcomed victory for the victims in the face of so much corruption and fraud in Spain for many years. It is certainly a turning point in the quest for justice by the thousands of victims of scammers such as Continental Wealth Management and life offices such as Old Mutual International, Generali and SEB.

    I will be writing to all advisory firms who are selling life bonds to victims in Spain to advise them that this is now a criminal matter and to warn them that they will be reported to the DGS.

    ————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

    Madrid, 10 January 2019

    General Directorate of Insurance and Pension Funds (DGS)

    Complaints service file number 268/2016

     

    COMPLAINT BY A CONTINENTAL WEALTH CLIENT IN RESPECT OF HEAVY LOSSES INCURRED ON HIS PENSION TRANSFERRED TO A BOURSE QROPS AND PLACED IN A GENERALI INSURANCE BOND.

    The Directorate General of Insurance and Pension Funds is competent under the powers conferred on it by Article 46 of Law 26/2006 of 17 July, on the mediation of private insurance and reinsurance, to examine the claim formulated for the purpose of determining non-compliance with current regulations on the mediation of private insurance and reinsurance, and whether this is decisive for the adoption of any of the relevant administrative control measures, particularly those of administrative sanction, which contravene the aforementioned Law.

    Article 6 of Law 26/2006, of 17 July, on private insurance and reinsurance mediation, which regulates the general obligations of insurance intermediaries, states:

    “Insurance intermediaries shall provide truthful and sufficient information in the promotion, supply and underwriting of insurance contracts, and, in general, in all their advisory activity….”

    Article 26 paragraphs 2 and 3 of Law 26/2006, of 17 July, on private insurance and reinsurance mediation, which refers to insurance brokers, establishes the following:

    “Insurance brokers must inform the person who tries to take out the insurance about the conditions of the contract which, in their opinion, it is appropriate to take out and offer the cover which, according to their professional criteria, is best adapted to the needs of the former.  The broker must ensure the client’s requirements will be met effectively by the insurance policy.”

    Article 42 of the Private Insurance and Reinsurance Mediation Act, which refers to the information to be provided by the insurance intermediary prior to the conclusion of an insurance contract, provides:

    “Before an insurance contract is concluded, the insurance intermediary must, as a minimum, provide the customer with the following information:

    1. a) The broker’s identity and address.
    2. b) The Register in which the broker is registered, as well as the means of verifying such registration.”

    Insurance agents must inform the customer of the names of the insurance companies with which they can carry out the mediation activity in the insurance product offered.

    In order for the client to be able to exercise the right to information about the insurance entities for which they mediate, insurance agents must notify the client of the right to request such information.

    Banking and insurance operators, in addition to the provisions of the previous letter, must inform their clients that the advice given is provided for the purpose of taking out an insurance policy and not any other product that the credit institution may market.

    Insurance brokers must inform the client that they provide advice in accordance with the following obligations:

    “Insurance brokers are obliged to carry out and provide (to the customer) an objective analysis on the basis of a comparison of a sufficient number of insurance contracts offered on the market for the risks to be covered.  Brokers must do this so that they can formulate an objective recommendation.”

    On the basis of information provided by the customer, insurance intermediaries shall specify the requirements and needs of the customer, as well as the reasons justifying any advice they may have given on a particular insurance.  The intermediary must answer all questions raised by the client regarding the function and complexity of the proposed insurance contract.

    All intermediaries operating in Spain must comply with the rules laid down for reasons of general interest and the applicable rules on the protection of the insured, in accordance with the provisions of Article 65 of the Law on the Mediation of Private Insurance and Reinsurance.

    Every insurance intermediary is obliged, before the conclusion of the insurance contract, to provide full disclosure.  In the event that a mediator was an Insurance Broker or independent mediator, he is also obliged to give advice in accordance with the obligation to carry out an objective analysis.  This must be provided on the basis of the analysis of a sufficient number of insurance contracts offered on the market for the risks to be covered.  The mediator can then formulate a recommendation, using professional criteria, in respect of the insurance contract that would be appropriate to the needs of the client.

    In the case in question, there is no evidence that the aforementioned information was provided to the client before the investment product was contracted.  Therefore, Article 42 of the regulations has been breached.

    Therefore, this Claims Service concludes that the mediator must justify the information and prior advice given to his client, so that the obligations imposed by the Law of Mediation can be understood to be fulfilled with the aim of protecting the insured.  Failure to comply with their obligations could be considered as one of the causes of the damage that would have occurred to their client.

    The claim is understood to be founded.  In the opinion of this Claims Service, the mediating entity has committed a breach of the regulations regulating the mediation activity – specifically of the provisions of articles 6 and 42 of Law 26/2006 of Mediation of Private Insurance and Reinsurance.

    The DGS requires the mediating entity to account to this Service, within a period of one month from the notification of this report, for the decision adopted in view of it, for the purposes of exercising the powers of surveillance and control that are the responsibility of the Ministry of Economy and Enterprise.

    The interested parties are informed that there is no appeal to this judgment.  Both the claimant and the mediating entity are made aware of their right to resort to the Courts of Justice to resolve any differences that may arise between them regarding the interpretation and compliance with the regulations in force regarding the mediation of private insurance and reinsurance, in accordance with the provisions of articles 24 and 117 of the Constitution.

    Chief Inspector of Unit

    Ministry of Economy and Enterprise

    Secretary of State for the Economy and Business Support

     

  • POOF! – there goes your whole life savings

    POOF! – there goes your whole life savings

    Pension Life Blog - POOF - there goes your whole life savings - Financial adviserScammers who act as financial advisers and operate pension scams, don’t wear a badge to identify themselves – nor do they pay any redress for the devastation they cause. Oh no, of course they don’t!  The scammers dress in snazzy suits, drive go-faster cars, sport posh briefcases and speak with a silky sales tune floating out of their mouths.  All this lulls victims into a false sense of security. Promises of guaranteed high returns and capital protection, as well as tax efficiency – and then… POOF! – there goes your whole life savings.

     

    This poem was passed over to us by a twitter friend.  We think it wonderfully sums up the way scammers work:

    Pension Life Blog - POOF - there goes your whole life savings - Financial adviserPoem

    Above the calming waves, you spot a dorsal fin,

    Is it that greedy shark who’s gonna take you in?

    So you dip your toes to test and out pops friendly Flipper,

    He’s so adorable but…

    did you know his snout can also be a killer?

    You listen to his clicking sounds that dull out your senses,

    You write those cheques then wish you hadn’t been so careless,

    As you wave goodbye to Flipper, you feel like all those lemmings,

    The wistful trail of your pension and POOF!

    there goes your whole life savings.

     

    Don’t fall for the silky-voiced salesman´s tune.  Follow the guidance in our ten standards to safeguard your pension from the scammers.Pension Life Blog - POOF - there goes your whole life savings - Financial adviser

    Ten standards for a financial adviser

    1 – The firm that a trustworthy financial adviser works for will have the correct licences to advise you on your pension. It will be fully licensed (regulated) for both insurance and investment, and the adviser will not hesitate to give you proof of this.

    2 – A trustworthy financial adviser will be fully qualified to the correct level and be happy to show you their certificates. A certified adviser will work to a correct code (not a scammer’s code) and never use silky sales techniques to get you to sign over your life savings.

    3 – A trustworthy firm and their fully qualified advisers will have all the correct paperwork and this includes professional indemnity insurance.

    Pension Life Blog - POOF - there goes your whole life savings - Financial adviser4 – A financial adviser who wants to help your pension grow steadily – with safe and suitable investments – will never throw sky-high promises of super fat returns at you. Scammers love this too-good-to-be-true sales technique.  Remember, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is! And it is a sign that they are working for commission benefits that will line their pockets and probably not suit your risk profile. A pension risk profile is usually a low-medium risk which will grow steadily.  High commission investments are often high risk and also often fail – causing devastating losses.

    5 – A financial adviser that works for your benefit and that alone will never expose you to a hard sales pitch. Repeat phone calls and pressure to sign – “for fear of missing out” – are often a tell-tale sign they are working for commission. Scam advisers – working for fat commissions at the expense of customer satisfaction – will rarely respect your risk profile.  They will rarely observe any compliance ethics either.

    6 – A financial adviser that you can trust should NEVER up-sell you with ‘extra’ investments like insurance bonds. Often these are a double wrapper that will make a scammer extra commissions. These ‘extra’ investments will often simply drain your pension pot, not contribute to it.

    Pension Life Blog - POOF - there goes your whole life savings - Financial adviser7 – If your adviser tries to sell you structured notes, UCIS funds, unsecured loan notes, in-house funds, non-standard assets or any ongoing commission-paying investments, he is probably not a trustworthy adviser. Scammers love to use such inappropriate investments, which line their pockets but deplete your pension fund.

    8 – An adviser you can trust will be happy to disclose ALL fees, charges and commissions, in writing: no ifs or buts. If the adviser you are using skims round this VERY IMPORTANT information, he probably isn’t a trustworthy adviser. Hidden charges are often how scammers line their pockets and destroy your pension fund.

    9 – A trustworthy firm and adviser will ensure you have full access to accounts of how you are updated on your pension fund and portfolio performance. This should be outlined to you at the time of transfer, usually a quarterly statement AND a yearly review. If your financial adviser cannot offer this information readily – just walk away.

    10 – A firm you can trust will have all their company history readily available. This should include public evidence of complaints made, rejected or upheld and redress paid.

    Pension Life Blog - POOF - there goes your whole life savings - Financial adviserA firm with advisers who are unwilling to answer all of the questions you ask them is clearly a firm to be avoided.

    If the firm you choose and the adviser they assign to you cannot attain all ten of the standards listed – find one that can.

    Don’t risk your life savings to the tune of a silky-voiced salesman. He may look the part, but appearances can so easily fool.

    Scam victims will tell you they wish they had ensured their pension transfer had adhered to all ten of these standards.

    Cartoon blog – Don’t be the next pension scam victim

     

  • Vueling v Old Mutual International

    Pension Life Blog - Vueling v Old Mutual International - pension scam victims pension scam vicitm - responsibility for a lossIntro written by Kim: ‘This week Angie travelled for work (yet again): she had to fly from Granada to Barcelona. Disaster struck –  her baggage sadly did not make the full journey -it’s sitting in the triangle of lost luggage no doubt. The airline – Vueling – whilst only providing the flight, was still happy to take responsibility for the loss of her bag and its contents, and compensate her. That got her thinking: if an airline can take full responsibility for a loss, why are life offices like OMI turning a blind eye to the massive losses they have caused to thousands of pension scam victims’ funds?

     

    Over to Angie:

    The financial services industry (especially offshore) has a lot to learn from the airline industry. Aviation stakeholders internationally provide the highest possible levels of safety for air travellers.  This due diligence is constantly reviewed, updated and improved. The same standard of responsibility routinely happens in all jurisdictions. Regulators, as well as air crash investigators, work together when things go right.  As well as when they don’t.

    Pension Life Blog - Vueling v Old Mutual International - pension scam victim - responsibility for a lossThe work of the air industry regulators, investigators and safety trainers never ceases with all parties constantly striving to maintain the highest possible standards of performance and safety. And when something goes wrong, everybody swings into action like the A-team, International Rescue and Tom Cruise combined.

    I know all this because one of my members is a Captain with a well-known airline (probably quite easy to guess which one!). He also trains pilots from a variety of other airlines in simulators – and this includes Vueling pilots. I will call him Captain BJ.

    BJ is a thoroughly decent bloke and has a rather endearing fondness for chickens.  He has devoted his professional life to the business of safety in travel.  And behind him is a comprehensive and robust system of regulation – internationally. Financial services regulators, on the other hand, stand by and watch (with their hands firmly in their pockets – and their fingers compulsively searching for something with which to fiddle) as the equivalent of hundreds of passenger planes crash every month. The regulators stare blankly at the charred remains of the passengers’ life savings and shrug carelessly at the huge scale of human misery caused so routinely. With such flaccid regulatory regimes in so many jurisdictions, these chocolate-teapot regulators de facto facilitate and encourage losses caused by negligence and scams.

    I know all this because Captain BJ is also a pension scam victim – courtesy of Stephen Ward’s Ark £27 million pension scam. Despite the extreme stress of losing his pension, he has to keep a stiff upper lip and continue with his daily routine of flying thousands of passengers safely around the skies of Europe.

    My recent experience on a Vueling flight provides an interesting parallel with the “financial services” provided by Old Mutual International. Vueling sells flights. They provide the aircraft; the pilots and the cabin crew. They offer a selection of routes, food and drink, duty free goods, toilets and the expertise to get many thousands of passengers from one destination to another safely and on time; day after day after day.

    What Vueling doesn’t do is operate a baggage handling service – this is provided by the airport you travel through. However, no matter how enjoyable a flight has been (if such a thing is possible!) and how punctual the take-off and landing are, the whole experience can be badly marred by the loss of a passenger’s luggage. While Vueling is responsible for the safety of the passengers, it is NOT responsible for the safety of the passengers’ luggage when it is not in the bowels of the aircraft. However, Vueling goes to extraordinary lengths to help people whose luggage has been delayed or lost. Vueling take full responsibility for a loss of luggage, luckily for me.

    Earlier this week, it was the baggage handlers at either Granada airport or Barcelona airport who were responsible for my medium-sized, black, tatty suitcase. And they lost it. The case had been full of clothing typically worn by a slightly fat, grey-haired woman on the wrong side of something ending in a nought. So no desirable or valuable designer totty wear, expensive perfume or sparkly jewellery.

    Pension Life Blog - Vueling v Old Mutual International - pension scam victim - responsibility for a lossBut Vueling provide people like me (who end up wearing the same orange jumper and purple socks two days in a row) with an easy to use, online complaints and redress facility. It wasn’t Vueling’s fault that my luggage got lost, but they take responsibility for it anyway because it is part of the whole flight “package”.

    Contrast this with Old Mutual International (OMI) and the IoM regulator. And thank your lucky stars that they don’t try to run an airline (because if they did, it is unlikely any passengers or luggage would ever survive). OMI provides “insurance bonds” or bogus life assurance policies. These products serve no purpose except to pay fat commissions to rogue IFAs. And they feature a selection of risky investment products for the IFAs to earn even more commission. What OMI does not provide is financial advice – that is the job of someone else (i.e. the IFAs). But when the IFAs do the equivalent of losing the baggage, OMI takes no interest or responsibility other than to record the loss.

    In the air industry, there are two things that can go wrong that can cause customers financial damage: flight delays and loss of luggage. A comprehensive complaints and redress system is routinely provided by all leading airlines. In the financial services industry, there are two things that can go wrong that can cause customers financial damage: investment failures and disproportionately high charges. No complaints and redress system is provided by life offices such as OMI and no one takes full responsibility for a loss.

    If an airline experiences a crash, a huge machine swings into action to investigate the cause and take immediate remedial action to prevent the same or similar event from ever causing another accident. If a life office such as OMI experiences a crash, it pretends nothing has happened.  Pension scam victims? No pension scam victims here! OMI denies all responsibility. And blames the IFA. Or the weather.  Or Brexit.  And keeps charging the victims the same disproportionately high fees based on the huge commissions they originally paid to the IFA that caused the crash.

    Pension Life Blog - Vueling v Old Mutual International - pension scam victim - responsibility for a loss

    Here are some examples of OMI’s crashes in the past six years:

    * Axiom Litigation Fund – this was a PROFESSIONAL-INVESTOR-ONLY fund which was routinely used by rogue IFAs for ordinary, retail investors (and from which the IFAs earned fat commissions). OMI offered the Axiom fund on the bogus “life assurance” platform. And when the fund went into administration in December 2012, OMI shrugged its shoulders and said “not our problem“. And kept charging the victims the same fees as if the £120 million loss hadn’t happened.

    OMI knew that many of the IFAs had been neither regulated nor qualified and that the investors were unsophisticated, low-risk, retail customers.

    * LM Australian Property Fund – this was a PROFESSIONAL-INVESTOR-ONLY fund which was routinely used by rogue IFAs for ordinary, retail investors (and from which the IFAs earned fat commissions). OMI offered the LM fund on the bogus “life assurance” platform. And when the fund went into administration in March 2013, OMI shrugged its shoulders and said “not our problem“. And kept charging the victims the same fees as if the £240 million loss hadn’t happened.

    Pension Life Blog - Vueling v Old Mutual International - pension scam victim - responsibility for a lossOMI knew that many of the IFAs had been neither regulated nor qualified and that the investors were unsophisticated, low-risk, retail customers.

    * Premier New Earth Recycling Fund – this was a PROFESSIONAL-INVESTOR-ONLY fund which was routinely used by rogue IFAs for ordinary, retail investors (and from which the IFAs earned fat commissions). OMI offered the PNER fund on the bogus “life assurance” platform. And when the fund went into administration in June 2016, OMI shrugged its shoulders and said “not our problem“. And kept charging the victims the same fees as if the £800 million loss hadn’t happened.

    OMI knew that many of the IFAs had been neither regulated nor qualified and that the investors were unsophisticated, low-risk, retail customers. That is £1.16 billion worth of fund losses in just over six years, but they take no responsibility for loss of funds and the pension scam victim gets no redress.

     

    (Note – if you read the above three examples, you will see that although the funds, dates and amounts were different, the circumstances were EXACTLY the same!)

    Add to this the £ billions lost through toxic, risky structured notes, and that adds up to quite a cricket score that OMI “wasn’t responsible for“.

    Pension Life Blog - Vueling v Old Mutual International - pension scam victim - responsibility for a loss

    The causes were all the same:

    UNREGULATED ADVISORY FIRMS

    UNQUALIFIED ADVISERS

    FUNDS OFFERING HUGE COMMISSIONS

    FUNDS SUITABLE FOR HIGH-RISK, PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS SOLD TO LOW-RISK, RETAIL INVESTORS

    NO DUE DILIGENCE BY OMI

    We know that OMI bought:

    £200 million worth of failed Leonteq structured notes

    between 2012 and 2016 as OMI is claiming to be suing Leonteq. But this does little to distract attention from OMI’s multiple, long-term failures for allowing such toxic investments in the first place and causing many people to become pension scam victims.

    Pension Life Blog - Vueling v Old Mutual International - pension scam victim - responsibility for a lossIf I give my car keys to someone who is so drunk they can barely stand up – and certainly can’t spell either OMI or IOM – and there is a serious accident, whose fault is it? The drunk’s or mine?

    OMI’s CEO is a bloke called Peter Kenny who used to work for the IoM regulator. So he should know better. But he doesn’t. So we must assume he would be happy to hand his car keys over to a drunk or let an unqualified pilot fly a plane with a broken wing. And he would still claim it wasn’t his fault, despite the number of pension scam victims.

    The moral of this blog is: never wear orange and purple on a flight; never use an OMI life bond; always use a qualified, regulated and insured IFA. Don’t become the next pension scam victim.

    My next dilemma is what to buy with my Vueling compensation. I feel a trip to Marks and Sparks coming on. (I needed a bigger size anyway!).

    (Huge thanks to Captain BJ – to whom I owe my sanity).

    PS – since we wrote and published this blog, my luggage has been found.  Apparently, it never left Granada airport.  I suspect somebody pinched it – then found the clothes inside were so dull that they didn’t think it was worth taking it after all.

    CWM Pension scam – A victim’s reconstruction

  • Expats and Brexit – Safeguard your pension

    Expats and Brexit – Safeguard your pension

    BREXIT is the question on everybody’s lips at the moment.  BREXIT: will we? won´t we? deal? no deal? So many unanswered questions and so much scaremongering. We would like to offer some helpful words and hopefully protect you from making rash decisions.  This could help you to safeguard your pension. Many scammers are trying to cash in on Brexit – make sure sure you’re not their next victim.

    Pension Life Blog - Expats and Brexit - Safeguard your pension

    Remember I am not a financial adviser.  I am a blogger, and I write about financial crime. I provide information about past scams and on how to avoid falling victim to new scams – especially pension scams. The words I write are aimed to help you safeguard your pension from the many offshore scammers.

    So, Expats, what does Brexit mean for your pension rights? The short answer is that we really do not know! There are currently lots of “coulds” and “mights” being thrown around, but no certainties. And herein lies the risk that you and your pension could fall victim to a scam with all this scaremongering.

    We are seeing a lot of adverts for expats to transfer into a QROPS before the dreaded 11pm on March 29, 2019. One company I have noticed that seems to be using Brexit to attract customers is Spectrum IFA. Back on 1st July 2018, we wrote a qualified and registered blog about Spectrum IFA.  They didn´t do too well.

    Firstly, despite Spectrum IFA advertising themselves as “international financial advisers”, with some digging we were able to find out that they DO NOT  in fact have an investment licence. This means they are not legally allowed to advise on pensions or investments. Secondly, they scored rather poorly on the qualified and registered percentage too. Out of the 16 advisers we checked up on, only four were registered with the appropriate institutes. The rest came up red – meaning the institute had no record of them.

    Pension Life Blog - Expats and Brexit - Safeguard your pensionWorrying isn´t it?  Offshore companies can try to claim they are international financial advisers, but actually be unregulated and unqualified to carry out the very service they offer!  The “advisory” firms have flash websites, and some have several offices around Europe and beyond.  Their PR is great at scaremongering expats about their pension investments in the lead up to Brexit.

    In Spectrum’s ´Deal or no deal´ article number 14, they suggest you marry a Spaniard in order to prepare for Brexit. I´m not sure about you, but I feel that getting hitched to a native to be able to stay in Spain is a pretty drastic measure and definitely more than a little illegal.

    Spectrum IFA is just one example of a firm that probably ought to be given a wide berth when transferring your precious pension fund offshore. Safeguard your pension by avoiding unregulated and unqualified firms like this one.

    ********

    Pension Life Blog - Expats and Brexit - Safeguard your pension

    It may seem daunting when you read that your UK pension could be subjected to extra taxes if we leave the EU on a no-deal basis. You may be thinking that you should transfer into a QROPS quickly, to save on these taxes. But what you really need to know is that a QROPS is not without punitive costs of its own. They can be expensive and unless you have a good lump sum to transfer you could see a huge chunk of your pension pot taken in transfer and set-up fees anyway! Potentially making you worse off.

    Unfortunately, until we make a deal or actually go through with Brexit, nothing is very clear for expats. Which leaves us in an uncertain time and situation.  This, I understand, may be daunting for many people, but I urge you to take a deep breath before considering any speedy offshore pension transfers.  Thousands of people – especially those who have already fallen victim to scammers such as Continental Wealth Management – would give you exactly the same urgent advice.

    If you do want to transfer your pension, please heed this advice to safeguard your pension: 

    Make sure you choose a reputable firm – one that is regulated, insured and employs fully qualified (and registered) advisers.

    We did a series of blogs last year on offshore companies and their advisers.  The results were extremely worrying. Aside from their blatant disregard for the necessity of these qualifications – due to being offshore – the number of unqualified advisers offshore was cause for serious concern.  Many of the firms had not one single qualified and registered adviser on their team. 

    Qualified & registered? We do not need to be – we are offshore!

    Pension Life Blog - Expats and Brexit - Safeguard your pensionKnow all the correct questions to ask an adviser before you sign on the dotted line. 

       A reputable firm will have a fact-find procedure, and adhere to a client’s risk profile.

       A reputable firm will have compliance procedure.

       A reputable firm will have clear and consistent explanations and justifications for the use of insurance bonds.

     

    Where will your funds be invested, and how will you know if this is in line with your risk profile?

       A pension fund should be placed into a low-medium risk investment.

    Scammers tend to go for high-risk, professional-investor-only investments as they offer them the best commissions.  But a pension fund should have more protection than this.  Avoid investments that involve structured notes (like CWM´s Blue Chip notes), UCIS funds (like Blackmore Global), in-house funds, non-standard assets and any ongoing commission-paying investments.

    Insurance bonds – often used by scammers – are usually an unnecessary double wrapper on your fund, that costs you more in fees and charges than a straightforward platform, lining the pockets of the scammers – but making your fund smaller. 

    Pension Life Blog - Expats and Brexit - Safeguard your pensionHow much will the fees and charges be?  Remember NO pension transfer is free.

       Legitimate firms will normally have a small transfer charge and a small annual fee.

    Scammers will often be vague about fees and charges, and avoid giving you a straight answer so they can cover up the true figures. These hidden figures can see your pension fund decrease by 25% or even more in some cases.

    A reputable firm should offer you regular updates on the progress of your fund.

       You should receive an annual review and a quarterly update showing the fees, charges and growth of your fund.

    If your new firm and adviser fail to do this, alarm bells should ring loudly.

    Finally, a reputable company will publish evidence to show records of complaints made, rejected or upheld and redress paid.

    If the adviser cannot show you all this information, do not trust them.

    If it all sounds to good to be true, it probably is – RUN!

    Safeguard your pension from the scammers

  • Fines to be imposed on cold callers, but will it really put a stop the scammers?

    Pension Life Blog - Fines to be imposed on cold callers but will it really put a stop the scammers? Fines to be imposed on cold callers but will it really put a stop the scammers?In follow up to our blog ´Cold calling ban not approved´, we can confirm that as of the 9th January 2019, that companies who cold call with advice on pensions schemes could face fines of up to £500,000. Notice I highlight the word ´could´.

    If you have read our other blog you will already know that we have been waiting several years for a cold calling ban to be put in place. It is more than irritating to see that instead of a blanket ban on all cold calling they have imposed a fine on certain cold calls.

    This also begs the question of how they had time to pass the legislation for the fine, but not the legislation to simply just ban all cold calling – FULL STOP – no ifs no buts. I also wonder how they are going to track down the cold callers and enforce the fines onto them. Will it be the people making the cold calls that get the fines? or will it be the companies setting up the call centres, or god forbid will it be the masterminds and serial scammers who continue to set up toxic, high-risk funds to lure in their victims?

    The victims of the Continental Wealth management scam were cold called, see their story here.

    CWM CONference

    An article written by the Telegraph confirms my fears about the lack of ability the regulators have in enforcing the fines they have already issued. The ICO has been fining companies for nuisance calls since 2015, it is estimated that nearly half of all land line calls are cold calls made to the elderly!

    The Telegraph writes:

    ´The ICO has issued more than £5.7m in fines to cold call companies for breaching nuisance rules since 2015, but of the 27 fines issued only nine have been paid in full, recently published government figures revealed.´

    The sad truth from these figures clearly shows that despite fines being made they are not being imposed, the companies are simply not paying them. If companies are happy to ignore the fines then they are probably happy to ignore the threat of a fine and continue to make cold calls. Figures from Ofgem have shown that consumers were bombarded with 3.9 billion nuisance phone calls and texts last year but only 27 fines were issued and just nine of those actually paid in full!

    Pension Life Blog - Fines to be imposed on cold callers but will it really put a stop the scammers? cold called cold caller cold callers fined

    There are also so many loopholes these companies – who operate the call centers – can leap through. People must opt out of being cold called, if they have not done this, then companies can claim they were happy to receive the calls.

    For instance, if you are online – say on a compare website – and you do not tick the box to state you do not want to be contacted by third parties, you are giving your permission to be contacted. This then means that your data is sold on and the company that calls you about the pension scheme transfer can claim that you were happy to be contacted. It wasn´t a cold call as they had opted in. 

    The loophole enables them to potentially escape any fine, as technically the receiver of the call had  agreed to being contacted via a third party. The company making the calls can claim that they were not making a “cold call”. It feels like this legislation has been made after the horse has bolted from the stable. Hundreds of people have been scammed through the use of cold calling and hundreds more will continue to be scammed with the use of cold calling techniques, through loopholes.

    Furthermore, we still have the issue of the offshore firms, the firms that – due to being offshore – don´t feel that they have to abide by any rules that apply to the UK pension and investment market. These unregulated firms often employ unqualified advisers and will surely not be phased by the new litigation. They will continue to cold call and mis-sell these inappropriate toxic funds, that invariably pay the scammers high commissions and leave the victims pension fund in tatters.

    Pension scams involving cold calls such as Capita Oak, Continental Wealth Management, Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund  have left hundreds of victims with out a decimated pension fund. These unregulated, shameless firms and their snake salesmen are not going to acknowledge the treat of a fine, nor the administer of a fine. AND if they are fined do the government really think they will pay it?

    Serial scammers like Stephen Ward who started out on the ARK pension scam, went on to scam again AND again, despite the scams being shut down by HMRC and the tPR again and again! None of the scammers who promoted these scam have been put behind bars and no money has been paid back to the victims. The scammers show no remorse for their actions. These blatant financial criminals aren´t going to pay a fine for cold calling if they aren´t going to admit the pension scheme´s they set up were fraudulent.

    Pension Life Blog - Fines to be imposed on cold callers but will it really put a stop the scammers? cold called cold caller cold callers fined cold calls bannedA quick google search of cold call gives untold amounts of advice on how to do it efficiently in 2019! Whilst some of these companies aren´t UK based, the evidence is clear. Cold calling pays and the companies that benefit from cold calling are not going to suddenly stop making them.

    The regulators are really going to have to step up and do some serious regulating and enforcing if these fines are to be issued, actually followed up and collected.

    The sad truth is that whilst the fines sound great on paper, they will do little to protect the public from being scammed.

    So again we would like to say – loud and clear

    If you are cold called – just hang up!

     

    Safeguard your pension from the scammers!

     

     

  • Scammers are criminals. So why aren’t they in jail?

    Scammers are criminals. So why aren’t they in jail?

    Scammers are criminals, so why are they not being prosecuted?As 2018 draws to a close, a recap is in order to review the year’s progress in the war against pension scammers. Let us not forget – in the immortal words of the Pensions Regulator’s Lesley Titcombe: “scammers are criminals“. However, the sad truth is that most of them have not been prosecuted or jailed.

    The vast majority of the well-known pension scammers are still roaming free, busy thinking up yet more life-destroying schemes to make them rich and the victims poor.  Whilst the scammers enjoy champagne this New Year’s Eve, many victims will be worrying themselves sick about their bleak financial future.

    The Pensions Regulator, the Serious Fraud Office, the Insolvency Service, crime enforcement agencies and courts all seem to drag their feet when it comes to actually bringing charges against these criminals. Yet we see people being locked up for renting out caravans to help vulnerable homeless families! I would love it if this was a short and sweet blog, with many happy endings.  But, alas, the scams are plentiful and the victims are left uncompensated for their losses.

    Let’s have a quick round up of where we are with the scams and scammers.  And remember: all the thousands of victims want to see the scammers sent to jail and the keys thrown away so they can’t ruin any more innocent people’s lives.

    5G Futures

    5G Futures: in May 2013 Garry John Williams and Susan Lynn Huxley were suspended as trustees of the 5G Futures pension scheme, and from trust schemes in general. Pi Consulting was appointed as the new trustee by the Pensions Regulator.

    About 400 people had invested a total of £20m into the 5G Futures scheme – which was invested in high-risk, illiquid off-shore investments, with insufficient diversification making them completely unsuitable for pension scheme investments. There was no due diligence exercised by Williams and Huxley – and the scheme records were a mess.

    The scheme operated pension liberation through ‘loans’ to members. Williams and Huxley were found to have taken very high commissions on the investments – taking nearly £900,00 in one year alone.

    One of the most worrying things, however, is that the pension scammers don’t just leave the pensions industry and dedicate themselves to helping their many distressed victims – they start up all over again:

    Garry Williams and Sue Huxley went on to run Corporate Futures.eu

    Neither Garry Williams nor Sue Huxley has ever been convicted or jailed.

    Ark

    Stephen Ward: (this will not be the last time you hear this name in this blog) was the mastermind behind this scam (dating back to 2010).   It was his first known scam – but by no means his last one. What is left of the Ark fund, stands still frozen, in the hands of Dalriada Trustees, who continue to take their yearly costs and fees from what little is left.  Dalriada has done nothing to ensure the scammers are prosecuted – saying it is “not within their remit”. The victims of the Ark scam also have the heavy hand of HMRC hanging over them.  And let us not forget that it was HMRC who happily registered this scam and failed to withdraw the registration when they discovered that Stephen Ward was operating pension liberation fraud.

    Dalriada has never reported Stephen Ward to the police as it is not “within their remit” to ensure the scammers are prosecuted.

    In 2018 we saw Stephen Ward being banned from acting as a pension trustee. Eight years after his first scam, he has still not been imprisoned for the millions of pounds’ worth of life savings he has destroyed and the thousands of lives he has ruined.

    Other prominent figures in the Ark scam were Julian Hanson – who went on to play a key role in the Friendly Pensions scam; George Frost who went on to operate a new pension liberation scam using truffle trees as investments; Andrew Isles who went on to sell his accountancy business, Isles and Storer to LB Group; Peter Moat of Blu Debt Management who went on to operate the Fast Pensions scam.  None of these scammers has ever been convicted or jailed.

    Axiom

    Another pension liberation scam, which saw victims with HMRC tax demands of 55%. Rex Ashcroft of Wealth Protection International was one of the main introducers of this scam. According to his Linkedin profile, he offers business development strategy planning for the UK, Spain, Portugal and France.  He also offers “day-to-day application of wealth protection strategies”.  Ashcroft lied to Axiom victims telling them they could access part of their pensions and not pay tax on the cash they took out.

    Rex Ashcroft has never been convicted or jailed.

     

    Blackmore Global FundPension Life blog - Scammers are criminals, so why are they not being prosecuted? Blackmore Global

    The Blackmore Global Fund saw UK-based victims conned into transferring their pension funds into QROPS in Malta and Hong Kong between 2014 and 2016.  After the transfers, the funds were invested in the Blackmore Global UCIS fund (Unregulated Collective Investment Scheme) and the victims were locked in (unknowingly) for ten years.  Huge commissions were taken by the introducers, Aspinal Chase and David Vilka of Square Mile International and the fund managers Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh.  Victims locked into ten-year fixed terms are still waiting for a copy of an independent audit – which was promised back in 2016! Despite media attention from the BBC, victims still do not know how much of their pension fund – if any – is left.

    David Vilka, Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh have never been convicted or jailed.  Blackmore Global Group is still being promoted by Phillip Nunn!  Nunn and McCreesh had been the main lead generators in the Capita Oak scam – earning nearly £1 million in the process.

    Capita Oak

    This was another of Stephen Ward´s scams – on which he worked closely with his pensions lawyer Alan Fowler (ex Stevens and Bolton Solicitors) and his sidekick Bill Perkins.  Ward carried out the transfer administration for this scam which was mainly operated by XXXX XXXX who offered victims 5% Thurlston “loans”.   Over 300 victims are facing the partial or total loss of their pensions and are also now being pursued by HMRC for tax liabilities on the “loans”.

    Capita Oak – like Ark – was placed in the hands of Dalriada Trustees.  But Dalriada has never reported Stephen Ward – or any of the other scammers – to the police as it is not “within their remit” to ensure the scammers are prosecuted.

    Stephen Ward, Alan Fowler, Bill Perkins and XXXX XXXX have never been convicted or jailed (although XXXX XXXX is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office). 

    Continental Wealth Management

    Pension Life blog - Scammers are criminals, so why are they not being prosecuted? Stephen Ward’s firm Premier Pension Solutions (in Moraira, Spain) was the “sister” firm of Continental Wealth Management, run by scammer Darren Kirby.  This was one of the biggest single scams – known as CWM – with around 1,000 victims losing part or all of their life savings. Other scammers involved were Anthony Downs, Dean Stogsdill, Alan Gorringe, Richard Peasley, and Neil Hathaway.

    This scam was promoted by cold-calling victims and promising unrealistically high returns and “capital protection”.  Darren Kirby and Anthony Downs used the victims’ funds to invest in totally unsuitable, high-risk, fixed-term structured notes.  This scam saw huge commissions paid by the life offices – Old Mutual International, SEB, and Generali – as well as by the structured note providers: Leonteq, Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada, and BNP Paribas to this unregulated firm.  Let us not forget that this was without question financial crime and was facilitated by the life offices.

    Old Mutual International, run by ex IoM regulator Peter Kenny, was the leading life office which facilitated the CWM scam.  Generali and SEB also routinely accepted business from these known scammers and unlicensed advisers.

    Stephen Ward, Darren Kirby, Anthony Downs, Dean Stogsdill, Alan Gorringe, Richard Peasley, and Neil Hathaway have never been convicted or jailed.

    ELYSIAN FUELS

    James Hay and Suffolk Life were accepting Elysian shares for liberation purposes

    Another Stephen Ward creation which was operating 80% liberation with the full cooperation of the SIPPS providers James Hay and Suffolk Life.  The SIPPS providers and the victims could face tax charges of up to £20 million from HMRC.

     

     

     

    Despite clear evidence that Stephen Ward pushed this scam in emails to Alan Fowler and Bill Perkins, neither Ward nor Fowler nor Perkins have ever been prosecuted or jailed.

     

    EVERGREEN RETIREMENT TRUST NZ QROPS PENSION LOAN SCAM

    A New Zealand QROPS scam with Marazion pension loans

    When Ark got shut down, Stephen Ward went straight to New Zealand to set up his next pension liberation scam with Simon Swallow of Charter Square.  A further 300 victims were scammed out of over £10 million and conned into Marazion “loans” AND locked into the Evergreen scheme for five years.  After the five years victims were told: ´Despite our best efforts, Evergreen has not been as successful as we had originally hoped.´  Evergreen was wound up April 208.

    This scam was promoted by Darren Kirby’s Continental Wealth Management which cold called the victims.

     

    Stephen Ward, Darren Kirby, and Simon Swallow have never been convicted or jailed.

    Fast Pensions

    Pension Life blog - Scammers are criminals, so why are they not being prosecuted?Fast Pensions, run by Peter and Sara Moat was wound up by the High Court 30th May 2018, after the six companies and 15 occupational schemes were put into liquidation in March 2018. £21m was transferred into the schemes under Peter Moat’s set of Blu loan companies. However, there was no information on the pension portfolios and what happened to the investors’ funds.  Other persons named as being involved in this scam are Miss Jane Wright (who acted as a trustee) and a Mr Chapman. Maladministration was noted by the ombudsman back in 2016.  However, nothing was done to stop the Moats.

    It was determined that there is no doubt this was a scam.

    Peter and Sara Moat and their accomplices have never been convicted or jailed.

    Friendly Pensions Limited (FPL)

    Back in January of 2018, the Pensions Regulator asked the High Court to act on their behalf in the Friendly Pensions matter.  Scammers: David Austin, Susan Dalton, Alan Barratt and Julian Hanson (also involved in ARK) were ordered to pay back £13.7 million they took from their victims and banned from being pension trustees. However, Dalriada the independent trustee appointed by TPR to take over the running of the schemes, is in charge of confiscating the scammers’ assets for the benefit of their victims. (Who knows how long this could take: how long is a piece of string?) As yet, no compensation has been offered to the victims.

    David Austin, Susan Dalton, Alan Barratt and Julian Hanson and their accomplices have never been convicted or jailed.  However, there have recently been some arrests – so let us hope this results in maximum sentences.

    HEADFORTE AND SOUTHLANDS

    Two bogus “occupational pension schemes” set up for pension liberation fraud by Stephen Ward after the Evergreen QROPS scam hit the rocks (when HMRC removed Evergreen from the QROPS list).  Victims have no idea where or how their pensions are invested.  The pensions are allegedly invested in “The Treasury Plus Fund” (whatever that might be – and it is not likely to be anything good) and the trustee is Ward’s bogus trustee firm Dorrixo Alliance.

    Nobody knows the total aggregate value of lost pensions and tax liabilities Ward has caused – we hazard a guess at a figure in the region of £100 million +.

    Stephen Ward has never been convicted or jailed.

    Henley Retirement Benefit Scheme

    Another double act by Stephen Ward and XXXX XXXX.  This was the “sister” scheme to Capita Oak.  Ward did the transfer administration – from safe, well-known and regulated pension providers to this bogus occupational scheme run by XXXX.

    Neither Stephen Ward nor XXXX XXXX  has ever been convicted or jailed.

    Incartus and Bluefin Trustees

    Another pension liberation scam – placed in the hands of Dalriada Trustees by the Pensions Regulator.

    Incartus was placed in the hands of Dalriada Trustees by the Pensions Regulator.  But Dalriada has never reported the scammers to the police as it is not “within their remit” to ensure the scammers are prosecuted.

    None of the Incartus or Bluefin trustees scammers has ever been convicted or jailed.

     

    KJK Investments and G Loans

    £11.9 million worth of transfers were made, with the victims receiving approximately 50% of their pension as a loan and the promise of the rest being invested into a high-interest generating SIPPS. The loans were made from the pensions and therefore the victims have the usual HMRC tax demand letters.  Further to the victims’ misery, the other 50% of the funds was not invested as promised. Most of the funds were swallowed by high commissions paid to the scammers.

    None of the KJK Investments/G Loans scammers has ever been convicted or jailed.

    London Quantum

    Pension Life blog - Scammers are criminals, so why are they not being prosecuted?Another of  Stephen Ward’s many pension scams, this one was courtesy of his bogus pension trustee firm Dorrixo Alliance, his accomplice Gary Barlow at Gerard Associates, and introducers at Viva Costa International. Like Ward´s other scams, London Quantum scam was never set up for the benefit of the victims, but in the interests of Stephen Ward and his team of scammers to earn the maximum amount of commission out of the toxic, illiquid, high-risk investments.

    The London Quantum scam is now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees.

    London Quantum – like Ark, Capita Oak and Fast Pensions – was placed in the hands of Dalriada Trustees by the Pensions Regulator.  But Dalriada has never reported Stephen Ward – or any of the other scammers – to the police as it is not “within their remit” to ensure the scammers are prosecuted.

    Stephen Ward and Gary Barlow have never been convicted or jailed.

    Successful Pensions

    This pension liberation scam dating back to 2013 and 2014, involved around £1m of victims pension funds. Anthony Locke, was sentenced to a five-year jail term and Ray King, 54, who was employed by Lock, was given a three-year jail sentence.

    It is great that these two crooks received jail terms, however, they are relatively “small fry” in comparison to the other serial scammers who are still walking free!  The question remains: why have two minor players such as Locke and King been convicted and jailed while the “big fish” remain free to keep on scamming?

    Salmon Enterprises

    Pension Life Blog - Salmon Enterprises Scheme Pension Scam116 victims were scammed out of their pensions by James Lau of FCA-regulated Wightman Fletcher McCabe.  Victims were assured the loans they were given did not come from their pension funds and would not be taxable by HMRC.  The trustees of the scheme – Peter Bradley and Andrew Meeson (both ex HMRC) of Tudor Capital Management – were jailed for eight years for cheating the Public Revenue.  James Lau is currently under criminal investigation by the Insolvency Service. The victims are awaiting a verdict on whether they will still have to pay the tax penalties.

    James Lau has not yet been convicted or jailed – although he is clearly a wanted man.

    Pension Life blog - Scammers are criminals, so why are they not being prosecuted?Trafalgar Multi-Asset Fund

    This fund, created by XXXX XXXX, loaned most of the £21m invested by hundreds of victims to Dolphin Trust. Dolphin Trust is a UCIS which was illegal to be sold to UK residents. The Trafalgar Multi-Asset fund was suspended back in September 2016 and victims are still waiting to find out if they will ever get their money back.

    This scam was facilitated by STM Fidecs in Gibraltar – one of Europe’s biggest QROPS providers.  The regulator did order Deloittes to carry out an inspection into STM Fidecs’ books, but no action was taken against STM Fidecs for their part in this scam.

    STM Fidecs accepted transfers into the QROPS by UK-resident victims “advised” by XXXX XXXX – even though he was not licensed to give financial advice.  And then XXXX’s clients were 100% invested in XXXX’s own fund.

    XXXX XXXX has not yet been convicted or jailed – although he is clearly under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

    Westminster Pension Scam

    Another of the schemes under investigation by the SFO.  This liberation scam with more than £3 million worth of (now worthless) investments was registered and administered by Stephen Ward.

    Windsor Pensions

    A no-frills pension liberation scam run by Florida-based Steve Pimlott.  This scam has been going on for years and there is no sign of any let up – despite the fact that the regulators and ombudsman are well aware of Pimlott’s modus operandi.  Pimlott doesn’t bother with any attempt to conceal the loans with fancy “loans” or complex mechanisms to try to “distance” the liberation from the pension transfer.  He uses QROPS and a fraudulently-set-up bank account in the Isle of Man (of course!).  HMRC catches many of the victims and charges them 55% tax on the liberated amount.  Pimlott charges around 15% for the liberation.

    Steve Pimlott has not yet been convicted or jailed

    What a sorry state of affairs that out of all the pension schemes I have mentioned here, only one of them has seen the scammers jailed. Serial scammers like Stephen Ward and XXXX XXXX seem to slip the noose of justice again and again.

     

     

  • FT Adviser Top 100 Financial Advisers 2018

    FT Adviser Top 100 Financial Advisers 2018

    I have enormous respect for FT Adviser.  Their articles are written by proper journalists and they generally write competently and professionally.  FT Adviser puts International Adviser to shame with their thinly-disguised promotional shows and Micky Mouse “articles” which only ever promote their own sponsors – Old Mutual International and their ilk.

    It was really interesting to read FT Adviser’s recent “Top 100 Financial Advisers 2018“.  I had, however, never heard of most of the advisory firms.  But that is hardly surprising because nobody ever comes to me and says “guess what, I’ve got a really good adviser and am making good returns on my investments”.  And I presume that all the advisory firms listed by FT Adviser are full of happy clients who never need to complain about being scammed into unsuitable investments and losing money due to a combination of high, undisclosed charges and trading losses within insurance bonds (particularly OMI’s).

    However, and it is a big “however”, there are a couple of firms on the list which should have had big red asterisks against them – largely because they discredit the rankings, the other firms on the list and FT Adviser’s reputation.  These are Quilter PLC and Canaccord Genuity Group.

    Canaccord Genuity Group is under investigation by the FCA for non-disclosure of investment charges.  Coming 24th in the top 100 list, it is very worrying that an advisory firm that lies about how much investments cost should have £990,000,000 worth of assets under management.  I wonder what the investment charges are on that little lot and how much non-disclosure of related charges has gone on.  Let us not forget that “non-disclosure” means lying – and with almost one billion under management that is very serious indeed.

    However, Canaccord Genuity Group’s porky pies do pale into a degree of insignificance when compared to Quilter plc which came sixth with £10.3 billion worth of sales and £29 billion worth of assets under management.  Quilter plc is Old Mutual International, which is the life office which helped scam hundreds of victims out of their life savings.  So surely FT Adviser should have put a really bright double red asterisk against this firm on the league table?  (Or perhaps they didn’t care, as Quilter was the lead sponsor?).

    If Quilter is managing £29 billion worth of assets – presumably on behalf of thousands of investors – I wonder how much of this has been used to buy toxic, high-risk structured notes.  As Old Mutual International seems to be claiming there is nothing wrong with destroying millions of pounds’ worth of clients’ funds by making inappropriate investments, the same must be true of Quilter plc.

    Old Mutual International was buying many millions of pounds’ worth of structured notes provided by Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada, Nomura and Leonteq between 2010 and 2017.  OMI has disclosed that at least £94 million worth of the Leonteq notes were fraudulent, and is now suing Leonteq.

    I have to confess, if I were a client of Quilter plc, I would be inclined to change advisers sharpish – although most certainly not to Canaccord Genuity.  Mind you, that still seems to leave 98 other firms worth considering.

    But, despite the embarrassing inclusion of these two dud firms, congratulations to FT Adviser for the hard work which must have gone into producing this hit parade.  This is definitely one in the eye for the hopeless nitwits at International Adviser.

     

  • The wheels of the law don´t seem to turn at all

    The wheels of the law don´t seem to turn at all

    Pension Life Blog - Where the wheels of the law don´t seem to turn at all - Friendly Pensions - David AustinThis week Henry Tapper wrote a blog entitled, “The wheels of the law turn (too) slowly”.  He exposes the fact that when it comes to financial crime the justice system in place just isn´t enough.  I think he was being generous with his title.  The wheels of the law don’t just turn slowly – they just don’t turn at all. Friendly Pensions has been in the news this week.

    In the case of Friendly Pensions, we know ringleader David Austin is guilty of setting up 11 fake schemes, with toxic investments including a truffle farm. We know that he and his partners in crime, Susan Dalton, Alan Barratt and Julian Hanson (also connected to the Ark Scam), are guilty of scamming 245 pension savers out of £13.7 million. We knew all of this back in January 2018, yet no arrests have been made!

    The FCA has, however, just yesterday, managed to enforce the following:

    “David Austin, 52, has been banned from serving as a pension trustee and disqualified from working as a company director for 12 years. His business partners Susan Dalton, Alan Barratt, and Julian Hanson have also been barred from trustee roles.

    David Austin’s daughter, 25-year-old Camilla, has been banned from serving as a director for four years for helping him with the scheme.”

    Pension Life Blog - Where the wheels of the law don´t seem to turn at all - Friendly Pensions - David AustinThey have been asked to pay the money back but by the looks of their social media accounts, I don´t think there is much left.  Camilla’s Facebook and Instagram accounts show her sunning herself on beaches and yachts around the world, and posing at luxury alpine ski resorts. David Austin is pictured on a gondola in Venice. They certainly got to enjoy the proceeds of their many victims’ pensions.

    Camilla Austin was a central part of the operational side of the Friendly Pensions scam.  She and a number of her girlfriends went into nursing homes and approached elderly, frail and vulnerable elderly people.  They easily conned them into signing transfer request forms – all that is required to get their hands on millions of pounds’ worth of pension funds.  And, of course, we all know that the ceding providers do nothing to stop fraudulent transfers.

    As Henry points out, banning these people from acting as trustees or directors, does little to deter past, present and future pension scammers. A ban is barely a slap on the wrist as far as we are concerned; these scammers can still launch any number of future dodgy schemes by simply finding the next crooked stooge – just as XXXX XXXX used the idiotic Karl Dunlop to be a director in the Capita Oak scam.

    Keeping pension savers safe from financial crime should be at the top of the list – but, instead, it is at the bottom.  Pension scammers are left free to commit their crimes over and over again.  Take Julian Hanson: he was busily scamming dozens of Ark victims out of more than £5.3 million worth of pensions back in 2011 and 2012, yet he was not prosecuted or jailed.  Hence, he was still able to get “friendly” with David Austin and go on to scam hundreds more victims out of their pensions.

    Remember the Capita Oak, Henley Retirement Benefits and Westminster pension scams?   These were scams run by XXXX XXXX of Nationwide Benefit Consultants.  However, XXXX was never brought to justice and so went on to operate the Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund/Victory Asset Management scam (STM Fidecs acted as the trustees here).  So hundreds more people were again scammed out of their pensions.  XXXX is currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office – but effectively still free to operate more scams.   We already have our suspicions about his connections to new scams.

    Capita Oak was registered by HMRC on 23.7.2012 (PSTR 00785484RM) by Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Transfers of 31 Memorial Road, Worsley and Premier Pension Solutions of Moraira, Spain. Ward was responsible for the ARK debacle – also with Dalriada – the scam that was to create the birth of Pension Life.

    Pension Life Blog - Where the wheels of the law don´t seem to turn at all - Friendly Pensions - David Austin

    Despite investigations being made into these schemes, Ward was still able to go on and create the CWM monster scheme that saw around 1,000 victims conned out of their pension funds. Ward is hovering somewhere between his collection of luxury villas in Florida and the Spanish Costa Blanca – but at least he is no longer doing pension transfers.  Over the past nine years, Ward can be linked to dozens more pension scams that have left thousands of victims’ funds decimated.

    These cases are just the tip of the iceberg.  We must not forget Philip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh´s investment scam Blackmore Global. This was in the wake of them doing the lead generation for the Capita Oak and Henley Retirement Fund scams.  The Insolvency Service has wound up these schemes, yet Nunn and McCreesh remain free to defraud more victims as they have never been brought to justice.

    David Vilka of Square Mile International was one of the main promoters of the Blackmore Global Fund scam.   He “advised” dozens – possibly hundreds – of victims to invest their pensions in this scam (despite the fact that he is neither qualified nor regulated to give investment advice).  Again, he has never been prosecuted or jailed, so still remains at large – free to continue scamming people out of their pensions.

    We published the Top 10 Deadliest Pension Scammers blog back in February 2018. In this blog, you can read about Fast Pensions and the Moats, as well as Steve Pimlott of Windsor Pensions. Whilst the Fast Pensions scheme has been wound up by the high court and placed in the hands of Dalriada, neither Sara nor Peter Moat is behind bars.

    Pension Life Blog - Where the wheels of the law don´t seem to turn at all - Friendly Pensions - David Austin

    You can see a depressing pattern here: these words are about cold, hard facts.  The authorities are leaving known scammers free to keep scamming.

    Victims of these scams have been left in misery and financial ruin.  Some have taken their own lives. Yet the perpetrators, those guilty of these repeated financial crimes, are free to do as they please.

     

    This area of financial crime really is where the wheels of the law don´t seem to turn.  Shame there aren’t any regulators capable of doing any regulating, or law enforcement agencies capable of enforcing the law.

  • Belgravia Wealth – qualified and registered?

    Belgravia Wealth – qualified and registered?

    Back due to popular demand, qualified and registered company blogs. Today, I am looking into Belgravia Wealth, a Swiss based company. Belgravia Wealth – qualified and registered? Lets see if you are.

    Pension Life Blog - Belgravia Wealth - qualified and registered? belgravia wealth management

    Belgravia Wealth has an impressive list of services offered. However, those who follow our blogs will know that the terms “structured products” and pensions together, makes us shudder with horror. We have seen so many pensions ruined by being invested in high-risk, fixed-term, for-professional- investor-only structured products.

    Whilst I have a queue of trolls telling me that structured notes are “not all that bad”, take a look at this video we created about John Rodgers and the ´blue chip notes´ that destroyed his pension fund. He was a victim of a pension scam courtesy of Continental Wealth Management, which affected around 1,000 members.

    What Belgravia say on their website:

    “Belgravia Wealth Management is a Swiss-established and regulated company founded to fill the advice gap that currently exists between the retail financial companies and the services available to the UHNW clients. As an independent company, we ensure that you benefit from impartial advice and access to offerings from all the financial providers available in the market.”

    It is great to read that Belgravia Wealth is regulated.  Many firms I have written about fail to meet this simple – but essential – requirement. They claim to be independent and suggest that their advice is impartial. I wonder, though, with all this transparency in their blurb – are their staff qualified and registered to give this “impartial” advice?

    Whilst their website offers a tab entitled “Careers”, it does not offer a list of staff that actually work for Belgravia Wealth. So, over to Linkedin to see if Belgravia Wealth staff advertise their employment with the company.

    As with all these blogs, we only go by the information we can find, which is the same information potential clients would be able to access.

    IFAs and their clients are invited to add to this blog, correct it, improve it. We will gladly edit our information if proof of qualification certificates can be supplied. Here’s a link to the three registers if you want to double check for yourself:

    http://www.cii.co.uk/web/app/membersearch/MemberSearch.aspx

    https://www.cisi.org/cisiweb2/cisi-website/join-us/cisi-member-directory

    https://www.libf.ac.uk/members-and-alumni/sps-and-cpd-register – Claim to a DipFA

     

    1. Spencer Freeman-Haynes – Director Zurich and Basel region at Belgravia Wealth Management – claims CISI – DOES not appear on the register

    2. Emmanuel Obi, Jr. LL.M – Head of Compliance – Switzerland at Belgravia Wealth Management – no financial qualifications claimed (but how can he oversee the compliance function if he isn’t qualified?)

    3. Mark Saunders – Regional Manager – Geneva Area, Switzerland – lists various CII qualifications  – DOES NOT appear on the register

    4. Ian Crompton – Director at Belgravia Wealth Management SARL – Claims CISI – DOES NOT appear on the register

    5. Euan Cameron – Belgravia Wealth Management – Basel Area, Switzerland – No financial qualifications claimed

    6. Mystery Man (I do not have access to the profile) – Manager of Business Development – Belgravia Wealth Management – without a name I can not check his qualifications

      Pension Life Blog - Belgravia Wealth - qualified and registered? belgravia wealth management -

    Belgravia Wealth Switzerland has 6 members of staff listed as working for them, and from what I can tell NONE of them are qualified or registered to give financial advice.

    Belgravia Wealth- qualified and registered 0%