For over a decade, life offices (more accurately known as “death” offices) have been the centre of millions of pounds’ worth of destroyed pensions. So here we are going to name the top 3 worst life offices… These are just some of the things they’ve been up to: Collaborating with scammers: unregulated, rogue firms posing […]
TOP 3 WORST LIFE OFFICES Read More »
Scammers such as James Hadley and Neil Hathaway who try to hide and silence publication of their financial crimes will not succeed.
The Sound of Silence (and Deafening Disgrace) Read More »
The routine “sale” of insurance bonds (whether the clients need them or not – which 99% of the time they don’t) is illegal in Spain. Undoubtedly this will be similar or identical in other jurisdictions. The Spanish Supreme Court has ruled that insurance bonds are invalid for the purpose of holding investments. But still the scammers continue to flog them indiscriminately – purely for the fat commissions.
CWM Criminal Trial 24th February 2020 Read More »
As the decade comes to a close, it is clearer than ever that victims of investment fraud need justice. The dirtiest stain on society is that of pension and investment fraud. Scammers have made fortunes out of pension and investment scams in the UK and across the globe – in all leading expat jurisdictions. With
Victims of Investment Fraud need Justice Read More »
FCA and FOS continue to dismay and disgust; CWM criminal case set to change offshore financial services; Forged dealing instructions epidemic; Offshore advisory firms without an investment license. It now emerges that on top of a failed “City Watchdog” (the Federated Consolidation of Apathy) we also have not just one, but two failed ombudsmen. The
Pension Life – Pension File November 2019 Read More »
Normally a great fan of FT Adviser – and their excellent, independent journalists – I was horrified at the recent “Guide to Structured Products” (particularly the section on how risky they are by Craig Rickman). Noting that this article can be used towards CPD credits, I was astonished that so little attention was paid to
How risky are structured products – and fireworks? Read More »
Mail on Sunday’s Laura Shannon met a group of victims of the Continental Wealth Management scam in Denia in July 2019. Here is a link to her excellent article Continental Wealth Management – “Plunder in paradise”: MAIL ON SUNDAY ARTICLE All power to her, this young lady put all other would-be investigative journalists to shame.
Continental Wealth Management – “Plunder in paradise” Read More »
Fighting pension scams: Regulation If it was easy to stop pension scams, everyone would be doing it. Clearing up the mess left behind a pension scam is a huge challenge. This is why clear international standards need to be recognised and adopted. The scammers are like flocks of vultures. If people only used regulated firms,
Fighting pension scams: Regulation Read More »
Blackmore Bond – yet another reason why only regulated advisers should be used for investment advice. The clear link between the recently-failed LCF Bond and Blackmore Bond through Surge Group remind us how important regulated investment advisers are. In the news again is the troubled Blackmore Group. This time we read that they have ‘temporarily’
Blackmore Bond – yet another failed investment? Read More »
In every pension scam there is one beginning, lots of middles, and always a wretched ending for the victim and a profitable ending for the scammers. The beginning is always a negligent, lazy, box-ticking transfer by a ceding provider – the worst of which always tend to be the likes of Standard Life, Prudential, Scottish
Who killed the pension? Scammers; ceding providers; introducers; HMRC? Read More »
Another high-risk investment fund goes belly up. London Capital & Finance (LCF) has gone into administration, not long after taking a whopping £236m of investments – much of which was from first-time investors. It is thought that 12,000 investors have been financially ruined. This tragic news comes as plans are being drawn up to take
London Capital & Finance collapses Read More »
The mis-selling of life assurance policies and long-term savings plans has been a regular topic in our blogs. Many victims of pension scams see their funds mis-invested into life assurance policies. These life assurance policies do little more than drain the fund value with their expensive fees and costs. Generali has for years been aggressively
Generali – jumping ship to avoid new regulations? Read More »
