Tag: Pension Fraud

Qualified or not qualified? That is the question.
I have been working for Pension Life for five months. I help Angie Brooks with blogging, images and social media networking. When editing a blog the other day, a question struck me: how do we know if anyone who offers a service is qualified to do so? For example, be it the dentist, doctor or financial adviser. When we go to the doctor at, say, an NHS-registered surgery, we don´t ask for the doctor’s certificate, qualifications or credentials. We assume that the NHS has done all the checking and that the doctor we see is qualified.

Pension Life blogs often talk about regulated and unregulated firms and qualified financial adviser and unqualified financial adviser. The world of finance, unfortunately, harbours some downright greedy wrong’uns with pound signs in their eyes. These wrong’uns are happy to swan about giving unqualified and regulated advice and hopefully stay under the radar.

I thought that a blog explaining the qualifications needed to advise someone on their pension and investments would be an invaluable blog to have in the Pension Life blog archives.

I work in pensions and finance, but I am not a qualified financial adviser. I have studied Multimedia and Cultural Studies – I have a bachelor of Arts degree – and here is where I apply my skills to – specifically – the pension side of finance. This does not, however, mean I am in any way qualified to give pensions and investment advice – as I am not qualified to do so.

However, here in the Pension Life office we are well aware that there are many unqualified and unregulated people offering financial advice to pension holders. The tragic result is that many people are falling victim to pension and investment scams as they are not aware of the qualifications which must be held in order to offer this kind of financial advice.

Pension vampires are hidden around every bend. With cold calling, charming manners and compelling sales techniques, offering high returns with low risks, it’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security and trust these fraudsters with your money.

Lucky for readers, I am here to offer you knowledge and information to help you avoid falling victim to bad financial advice from an unqualified financial adviser.

Using advice from Chartered Global about financial qualifications, you can discover that:
Level 3 Financial Adviser Qualifications

The most basic or entrance tier is the certificate level which is classed as a level 3 qualification within the UK framework, equivalent to A levels. Level 3 qualifications include:

CertCII: Certificate in Financial Planning issued by the Chartered Insurance Institute

CertPFS: Certificate in Financial Planning issued by the Personal Finance Society

CeFA: Certificate in Financial Advice issued by the Institute of Financial Services

Cert IM: Certificate in Investment Management issued by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment

Level 3 qualifications are sometimes held by adviser office staff and certain mortgage or protection advisers in a bank for example. These certificates require passing a selection of exams over 1-2 years and holders will have a general grounding in financial planning and financial services.
Level 4 Financial Adviser Qualifications

However, since 2012 financial advisers in the UK have been required to hold a minimum of a level 4 qualification to be able to continue to provide independent financial planning advice.The minimum required qualification to provide independent financial planning advice in the UK is now the diploma level, a level 4 professional qualification.

Look for the following letters or designations to identify a level 4 adviser:

DipCII: Diploma in Financial Planning issued by the CII

DipPFS: Diploma in Financial Planning issued by the PFS

DipFA: Diploma in Financial Advice issued by the IFS

IAD: Investment Advice Diploma issued by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment

Building on the certificate knowledge, level 4 advisers will offer a well rounded understanding of financial planning and products, from general investments, structured products, to basic pension, protection, tax and savings advice.
Level 6 Financial Adviser Qualifications

A full two levels higher are the profession’s top tier of financial advisers; holders of level 6 qualifications equivalent to a bachelor honours degree. Completing a comprehensive suite of professional exams over many years, these top-flight advisers will be designated through one of the following:

APFS: Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning issued by the CII

CFPCM: Certified Financial Planner

Adv DipFA: Advanced Diploma in Financial Advice issued by the IFS

Advisers at this level will have advanced expertise in the main areas of general financial planning.

Clients who require expert advice in matters such as investment management and portfolio construction, complex estate planning, inheritance tax mitigation, the use of trusts in family wealth planning, pension and pension transfers, QROPS, personal tax planning, business financial planning or general holistic financial advice will always be better off consulting a level 6 adviser.

If your adviser claims a CII qualification use this link to check their credentials are up to date. Anyone claiming CII should be on this register.

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

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CISI qualifications information:

Follow a progressive study route consistent with career paths in the financial services sector. Practitioners working in, or looking for a career in, Paraplanning should complete the level 4 Certificate in Paraplanning. Practitioners looking to work towards obtaining the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^TM certification should complete the RDR-compliant Investment Advice Diploma with the Financial Planning & Advice unit included.

The CISI is able to offer candidates an FCA approved, RDR-compliant direct study pathway leading to the level 6 Diploma in Financial Planning and the globally recognised CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^TMcertification, the pinnacle designation for financial planning.

Holding a CISI qualificationmeans that you are qualified to give Pensions advice. Anyone who states they have this type of qualification should appear on the CISI register.

To check you financial advisers claims to a CISI follow the link below and pop their name into the search.

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

edit: After publishing this blog I was offered some more information about financial qualifications. Holding a DipFA gives you a qualification similar to the above levels 4-6 which means they are qualified to give financial advice on retail investments ie Pensions. Here’s their website so you can check any financial adviser who uses these letters after their name. Anyone claiming a DipFA should show up on their register.

https://www.libf.ac.uk/members-and-alumni/sps-and-cpd-register

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A company that rates well in being qualified & registered in Blevins Franks Spain, check out our series of blogs Qualified & registered? to see how the offshore companies who offer financial services rate on their staffs claimed qualifications, versus actually being qualified & registered – some of the results are VERY VERY scary.

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$Pension Life Blog - Qualified or not qualified that is the question - fractional scamming - Qualified Financial Adviser$

Some more points to bear in mind:

Even CII-registered qualified financial advisers can be bad guys. Despite being a fully qualified financial adviser AND a CII examiner, Stephen Ward, of Premier Pension Solutions has been responsible for a large number of scams. Ward was responsible for the ARK debacle, and he facilitated the CWM scam and Evergreen New Zealand QROPS. EDIT: Stephen Ward has been banned from acting as a pension trutsee!

Also, “introducers” lurk in the sidelines luring people in and then referring them in the direction of a qualified, regulated financial adviser, who in turn refers them to an insurance company, and finds a provider for the pension and investments etc etc. Unfortunately, this often results in not just one but several layers of commissions, charges and fees. These all take their toll on your fund. Often referred to as fractional scamming, all of these people get a chunk AND there’s an annual charge (regardless of performance – this is often a % of the original fund value); AND if/when you realise your fund is suffering you may well find there’s an exit fee to top it all off.

So when venturing out for financial advice, please ensure you know that your adviser has the correct qualifications and regulation for the advice they are giving. A good past-performance and track record would also be helpful.

Don´t be afraid to ask for proof of this – a qualified and ethical financial adviser will be happy to provide you with their credentials and background.

If the adviser veers away from the subject of qualifications, veer your custom and funds away quickly.

If the adviser avoids any question you would like answers to, avoiding giving him and his firm your custom.

Check all the facts and figures (absolutely all of them) before signing ANYTHING!

Get all the information in hard copy and read it at least three times or however many times you need to read it to be completely comfortable that you understand everything.

Be sure you know exactly where your funds are going, what the charges will be for the transfer and any annual fees and early exit penalties.

Keep a constant, regular check on the progress of your fund – many pension and investment providers now give online access to check the progress of your funds.

Choosing what to do with your pension can present a minefield of options and layers of paperwork which you might not understand. Ensuring the people you are dealing with are fully qualified financial advisers is a great start. Here´s a link to Pension Life members Pete and Val´s video, they were both victims of the CWM pension scam and have been left with decimated fund. Pete states,

“Assume nothing with these people, if you do your doomed.”

Please heed Pete´s advice and make sure you know all the facts about any proposed pension transfer and keep a regular check on how your pension is doing.

I am writing a series of blogs about pensions, pension scammers and how to safe guard your pension fund from fraudster. Please make sure you read as many as possible and ensure you know everything you should about your pension fund transfer. If we can educated the masses about pension fraud we can stop the scammers in their tracks – globally.

What is a Pension Scam?

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June 6, 2018
David Trinkwon – EEA Investors’ Group – RIP

Pension Life was saddened to hear the news that David Trinkwon has passed away. David Trinkwon, coordinator of the EEA Investors’ Group had for a number of years campaigned passionately against EEA Fund Management (Guernsey) Ltd – “EEAFMG”) to help 1000´s of victims of the toxic, collapsed fund.

David Trinkwon established EEA Litigation Management early in 2016 to pursue legal action against EEA Fund Management in a class action for investors who have been trapped in the fund since 2011. Between 2005 and 2011, it is estimated that EEA Fund Management took in around £600 million from investors.

Redemptions of the EEA fund were suspended in November 2011 after then FSA managing director Margaret Cole branded traded life settlements ‘toxic’ products. However, an earlier warning was made to the industry in early 2010. But this was deliberately ignored by both advisers and pension trustees as the investment introduction commissions were a very juicy 15%. Advisers such as Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions in Moraira in Spain were flogging as much EEA as they could get out of the door to earn these commissions, and QROPS providers such as Concept Trustees in Guernsey were offering EEA as one of their (limited number of) investment choices. Further, Concept was in some cases accepting investment instructions from Stephen Ward for 100% of victims’ pension funds to be invested in this one toxic, high-risk fund.

Here at Pension Life, we applaud the work David Trinkwon has carried out so steadfastly and passionately for years. His hard work will be sorely missed in the world of prevention and cure of investment and pension scams. I personally met David on several occasions – in London and here in Spain. He had a great knowledge of the world of offshore finance and devoted a great deal of his time and effort to trying to help the thousands of EEA victims.

May 31, 2018
High Court Winds up Fast Pensions
Yesterday, Wednesday 30th May, in the High Court, the petition to wind up Fast Pensions and the associated companies and occupational pension schemes, was heard. The order was made that the companies and schemes should be wound up.

I would like to thank Michael Gibbon, the son of one of the Fast Pensions members, for attending the hearing and representing Pension Life and the 400 victims. Michael has been enormously supportive of our work behind the scenes – although this has clearly been hindered by the obfuscation of the Moats.

Michael has kindly summarised the details of the proceedings – and I have added some further information and thoughts.

I will now be asking all the Fast Pensions members to provide their documentation to my Assistant who will be collating as much evidence as possible for the Insolvency Service, insolvency practitioner and/or independent trustees.

The six companies originally placed into provisional liquidation by the Insolvency Service on 29th March 2018 were:
- Fast Pensions Ltd – company registration number 08121954 – was incorporated on 28 June 2012. The company’s registered office is at Crown House, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX
- FP Scheme Trustees Ltd – company registration number 09126225 – was incorporated on 11 July 2014. The company’s registered office is at 20-22 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU
- Blu Debt Management Ltd – company registration number 06699233 – was incorporated on 16 September 2008. The company’s registered office is at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington WA2 7JQ
- Blu Financial Services Ltd – company registration number 05912973 – was incorporated on 22 August 2006. The company’s registered office is at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington WA2 7JQ
- Blu Personal Finance Ltd – company registration number 07758290 – was incorporated on 31 August 2011. The company’s registered office is at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington WA2 7JQ
- Umbrella Loans Ltd – company registration number 07331044 – was incorporated on 30 July 2010. The company’s registered office is at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington WA2 7JQ
The fifteen occupational schemes run by Peter and Sara Moat were:

Broughton Retirement Plan
DM1 Retirement Plan
Elphinstone Retirement Plan
EP1 Retirement Plan
Fleming Retirement Plan
FP1 Retirement Plan
FP2 Retirement Plan
FP3 Retirement Plan
Galileo Retirement Plan
Golden Arrow Retirement Plan
Leafield Retirement Plan
Springdale Retirement Plan
Talisman Retirement Plan
Templar Retirement Plan
VRSEB Retirement Plan

Despite the Moats being caught up in six companies and 15 occupational schemes no one was present to represent any of the named companies or schemes.

Peter and Sara Moat are not the only people connected in this pension liberation scam.

A connected party to the companies was Miss Jane Wright who is a former employee of Peter Moat. Mrs Sara Moat/Mr Peter Moat and Miss Jane Wright had an unhealthy connection as they were all in a net of other associated companies. A Mr Chapman – who did apply for administration before the last hearing but this was rejected – is also said to have been instructed by Peter Moat.

The Moats various companies were operating pension liberation schemes in the form of loans. The victims of these liberation schemes were later met with tax demands by HMRC as they payments they received were deemed as unauthorised payments.

When selling the schemes the Moats used unacceptable sales techniques – cold calling, mis-selling and with-holding important information were among these. Furthermore an upfront fee of £1,000 was taken from each investor at the start of the investment of the funds – and this was undisclosed to the members as well.

A total of £21m was transferred into the schemes under

Peter Moat’s control however there was no information on the pension portfolios and what happened to the investors’ funds. The victims have had no updates on the funds, commissions or fee´s. Miss Jane Wright (who acted as the “trustee”) would always state she would seek and come back when questioned by the members about their funds.

Furthermore it is now clear that Peter Moat was acting as a de facto director in breach of his disqualification while acting for Blu Finance Group.

AND

Mr Henderson – accountant to ALL the schemes was also a disqualified director.

In attendance for the Insolvency Service were Mary Greenwell, and colleague, Tim Ward, Provisional liquidator. With the following points being raised:

* There was a Lack of information and cooperation with the Insolvency Service investigation

* Failure to respond to determinations by the Pensions Ombudsman and/ no evidence of compensation paid to members

* No professional advisers were involved

* Commission on the investments were not disclosed – no transparency to the investors was given

* On reporting on schemes, there was simply one page per scheme which was very concerning

* Evidence of the lack of proper transfer requests

* The six selling points used to sell the schemes proved to be false

* Very unclear on the advice provided to investors

* No commercial prosperity

* No information re bank balances

* Lack of transparency to ALL involved – members/Insolvency Service/Pensions Ombudsman/Pension Life

* The skeleton argument showed a flowchart which demonstrated the net of the Moats

See how fast your pension can disappear?

All the companies involved in this scam were controlled by Peter Moat ( acting under disqualification) and using other people. The whereabouts of the funds presently is unclear – funds were transferred to and through other companies controlled by Peter Moat. Some of it was invested in Umbrella Loans which was insolvent. Some of it was transferred to the Blu companies.

All the funds will need to be traced as it is unclear what monies are outstanding, however with very limited information provided by the companies this may prove to be difficult. It is thought that a huge amount of funds will be practically impossible to track or find. Then there is the £4m paid in commission which obviously came from investors’ funds and is therefore no longer attainable.

What can be ascertained is the clear evidence of mis-selling and based on the evidence, it was in the public interest to wind the companies and schemes up as it was a very clear case that these people could not be allowed to continue

With all this evidence there was no doubt that the order should be made that the companies and schemes should be wound up.

What is a Pension Scam?
May 31, 2018
Old Mutual International (OMI) facilitating financial crime

From 2010 up to the present day, Old Mutual International has been facilitating financial crime by allowing scammers to misuse and abuse OMI “life bonds” to scam victims out of their life savings.

The victims of the CWM scam are still wondering how the hell they lost an average of 60% of their life savings. Old Mutual International (Quilter) was the provider for the bulk of the life bonds used in the CWM debacle, taking huge amounts of business from unregulated scammers Continental Wealth Management. OMI also paid CWM huge amounts of commission – in the full knowledge that CWM was unregulated and a known, serial scammer.

Pension Life members of the CWM victim group have supplied their figures to us. The losses are huge and we believe that these figures need to be shared with the public so Old Mutual International (OMI) understand and take responsibility for the devastation they have facilitated to the lives of the victims.

Let us hope that Old Mutual International will step up to the plate. The people who work at OMI are human beings, with loved ones. Hopefully, they can imagine how they would feel if this tragedy had happened to one of their loved ones – while the people at OMI stood by and did nothing to stop the devastation. For more than eight years, OMI employees sat on their hands while the so-called investments inside their “insurance bonds” plummeted in value. And OMI did absolutely nothing. Just kept taking their quarterly fees.

OMI will, of course, try to say it was not their fault. That it was down to the advisers appointed by the victims. Or the trustees. Or both. Or the Boogeyman. OMI will claim that they had every right to sit there and watch millions of pounds worth of life savings being wiped off investors’ funds, while continuing to take out their huge quarterly fees.

I wonder how OMI/Quilter directors would feel if this happened to one of their loved ones. Or if someone they cared about had been drowning, and a crowd of people had stood by and watched them die. Because, make no mistake, there will be deaths as a result of this. And the people at OMI will have this on their conscience for the rest of their lives.

OMI’s victims have died. And more are dying. This industry is about people. Let us see if OMI cares about their fellow human beings. Because, so far, there is zero evidence that they give a toss.

May 23, 2018
International Investment interview with Pension Life´s Angie Brooks

International Investment interview with Angie Brooks, founder of Pension Life this week. This blog is written by Kim, Angie´s Assistant. Here´s the interview video which explains how Pension Life works to help victims of pension and investment scams. The interview also raises the question as to why pension and investment scams are so prolific – despite Angie’s hard work to bring them into the public eye – and bring scammers to justice.

As Angie states in the video, Pension Life was originally founded to help victims of the ARK pension scam with their tax liabilities. However, four years on and Pension Life has evolved. Angie is now involved in helping 34 different groups of victims of pension and investment scams. Angie regularly goes to the regulators and ombudsmen in different jurisdictions and makes complaints on their behalf.

Pension Life is based in Spain, and Angie works with clients all over the world. Pension and investment scammers have no boundaries or borders and will weave their evil mischief wherever they can find British expats.

Angie offers her members a fixed membership fee, meaning “people know exactly what they are going to pay in advance”. Using privately-funded solicitors can be pricey and sometimes even non-starterer. Angie has, over the past four years, educated herself in pension and investment scams – how they work and how they are (constantly) evolving. Members can rest assured that they are being represented by a leading expert in the area of pension and investment scams.

If it were up to Angie, the people and firms responsible for pension and investment scams would all be sent to jail and the keys thrown away. With her weekly blogs and videos on the Pension Life website, and with the use of social media, Angie is hoping to get the word out there and warn both the public and the industry.

Angie stands up for the masses, where their single complaints are lost in a pile of excuses by the firms responsible for the destruction of their funds. She meets and speaks to as many victims as she can. Each victim has his or her own tragedy – often involving serious health issues and terrible financial hardship as a result of being scammed out of their life savings.

Some of Angie´s blogs are very hard hitting towards the firms and advisors who condone the use of pension and investment scams. The role Angie plays in uncovering the crooks of the industry is not without risk and often her outspoken words attract negative attention. Angie often receives threats of being sued by the lawyers who represent the companies she blogs about.

Angie states, “But If I was frightened I wouldn´t do it.”

Its not just solicitors who bombard her in outrage about the clearly-evidenced facts that Angie reports, she also has a herd of internet trolls who target her incessantly.

Angie says with reference to her blog trolls:

“There is a reason why I write my blogs. Firstly to warn the public and expose the things that go wrong in the financial services industry – to try to help new people avoid falling victim to scams, negligence and mis-selling; secondly to bring firms to the table to negotiate a solution to a problem where a client has suffered losses in their pension or investment portfolio. Few people have funds to instruct lawyers to sue firms to force them to pay redress for clients’ losses, so it is much better and cheaper to get the firm to volunteer to do so amicably and in a non-contentious manner.

But my blogs do upset the scammers and they regularly post negative comments. I have recently been accused of ‘being in cahoots with’ deVere and other companies and individuals. It is being claimed that I am being paid not to write about them, and to attack their competitors.  It will come as no surprise that those who are now attacking me and accusing me of all sorts of things are the ones whose firms’ questionable practices I have been blogging about recently.

I have in the past had very public spats on social media with deVere AND its CEO, Nigel Green, as well as the others who I have been accused of not writing about. And, if I need to have spats again in the future, I will not hesitate to do so. Like most firms, deVere has indeed made some serious mistakes in the past. However, I do not have any live, unresolved client complaints against the firm.

But this is all just rubbish from scammers who are trying to deflect attention from the main issues that I am writing about. The commenters ignore the facts I am reporting about – i.e. real scams which destroy victims’ life savings – and pick away at me personally. That is absolutely fine, because I am more than happy to be criticised and lied about – because it says more about the writer than it does about me. The people who matter know the truth.

Regular readers of my blogs may notice that sometimes my blogs quietly disappear with no public explanation. There is a reason for that too. The blogs often bring firms to the table and we get stuff done. Sometimes firms even preempt matters and make contact even before I get a chance to do a blog.

If I call a firm to discuss a problem and they enter into helpful and constructive dialogue over how to solve it, I don’t blog about it but keep the matter confidential. There are firms who quietly sort things out without making a fuss in a dignified and conscientious manner. In contrast, however, there are firms that just pull up the shutters – such as OMI and STM Fidecs. Hence why I keep blogging about them.

DeVere is indeed one of a number of firms I don’t currently blog about. So for the nice gentleman called Graham and another charming chap who calls himself “Innocent Bystander” who are accusing me of being partisan, don’t think just about what I do write, but about what I don’t write. There are good reasons for both.

I will continue to expose the actions, practices and vulgar conduct of firms who continue to ignore my questions; And I will tag all those who are stupid and irresponsible enough to keep on working for these firms and helping to fill these firms already bulging pockets.  In contrast, however, Holborn Assets and Guardian Wealth Management have engaged in relation to complaints, and so I have removed all blogs which mention the firm.”

For the future, Angie hopes things will get better and that the war on pension and investment scams can be won. However, much help is needed and Angie calls for the whole industry to get involved and make it their business to know what is happening to expats worldwide.

Airing the problem is one of the best solutions and International Investment has taken a keen interest in the campaigning side of what Pension Life does. It would be a really good thing if some of the media tried to educate themselves on what are the key issues and avoid barking up the wrong trees.

May 23, 2018
FCA Pension Scams

I like to have a good relationship with regulators. And believe me I have tried really really hard with the FCA. I didn’t have much of a relationship with the Pensions Regulator in the past. I asked for a meeting with Tinky Winky, tPR’s former executive director. He turned up with two lawyers (in case one blew away I guess) and a paralegal in an aptly-named conference room called the Warwick Suite at a hotel at Gatwick airport.

Winky accused me of bombarding him with emails (about the Capita Oak scam). I counted them: 16 over an 8-week period. My calculator said that was approximately two per week.

Then he threatened me for “tipping off” and said I could be prosecuted; then the uglier of his two lawyers threatened me with unspecified action if I didn’t wind my neck in. She said to me in a rather unpleasant manner “we can have you sent to the Tower you know – we have wide-ranging powers”.

Anyway, our little tea party in the stuffy room didn’t exactly make for a good spirit between us. So I sighed a huge sigh of relief when Winky departed tPR a year or so later and went to work for LGPS (one of the ceding providers who had performed so appallingly in Ark, Capita Oak and Westminster – handing over £ millions to the scammers without batting an eyelid).

I am happy to say I have a good relationship with Lesley Titcomb – Head of tPR – and am grateful to Henry Tapper for facilitating this.

But, back to the FCA. I went to see John Thorpe at the FCA a couple of years ago – with a rather thin colleague of mine who is a Chartered Financial Planner. John was very enthusiastic about working with us and asked me to give him any intel I had on scams and scammers. He said he would ensure all information would be passed on to the relevant people. However, he did warn me not to deluge him with emails and said: “not more than two or three a week please”.

But then John got moved to another department, which was disappointing. Since then I have sent dozens of complaints to the FCA – as have a number of my associates including IFAs, trustees, compliance officers, chartered financial planners and victims. But the firms in question are left unsanctioned. And the non-compliant practices continue unabated – and more victims are ruined on a daily basis.

In 2016, Jeremy Donaghy-Sutton (a senior airline captain and safety instructor) and I got together in London. He suggested we propose to the FCA an air-crash-style investigation and reporting system to analyse the causes of scams, prevent them from recurring and taking the appropriate action against those responsible for failures. Mostly his brilliant work, we finished and printed off our proposal and set off for the FCA offices.

I had called ahead and told them we would be coming and that we would like to hand our proposal, report and a series of complaints to an appropriate person. I said it was important that we had a brief chat so that we could explain the purpose of our visit (me plus an actual victim) and the accompanying documentation.

We got to the FCA’s North Colonnade office and went to reception. There I explained who I was, what I wanted, who and what I had with me. A very pleasant lady, flanked by two security guards, said “Oh, but we don’t see people here”. Her English wasn’t too bad, but I did wonder whether she hadn’t quite understood what I had said. So I tried again, and went into some detail about the fact that the person I had previously spoken to at the FCA had said that someone would indeed come down and see us.

But her English seemed to get worse the second time. And she still insisted that nobody would come to see us and accept the documents. I tried a third time, while Jeremy sat in the waiting area chuckling quietly as he could see and hear my fuse getting shorter and shorter.

This time the nice lady said she would get someone to speak to me on the phone and asked me to sit down for a few minutes while she got through to somebody. Jeremy and I sat watching the ghastly moving picture on the reception wall – and I wondered what on earth had inspired such a weird and inappropriate piece of “art” (and what the artist had been on at the time).

After about ten minutes, I was summoned back to the reception desk and the nice lady handed me a phone. I have no idea who the man on the other end of the line was, and not much idea whether he was speaking in English or some weird combination of Mandarin, Yiddish and Czech.

When I eventually got my head and ears around his weird accent, I realised he wanted me to explain – over the phone – who I was and what I wanted. By this time there were about twenty people hanging around in the reception area – so this extremely confidential complaint and report proposal was announced loudly and publicly as my voice got higher, squeakier and louder.

I had to spell out some words several times as the man’s English seemed to get worse as the agonisingly painful conversation dragged on and on. When I had finished, exhausted and wondering if this was all a bad dream, the man said “OK, hand your documents into the post room”. We duly dropped the bulging envelope into the tiny little room just outside the entrance to the FCA building. I assume it was all shredded as we never even got an acknowledgement.

Afterwards, over a quick lunch in a Thai restaurant just up the road from the FCA, Jeremy and I wondered if what had happened had all been just a bad dream. How could such a thing happen in a supposedly civilised and well-regulated country. But then Jeremy himself had spent the past five years wondering how the Ark “thing” had been allowed to happen.

The very things I warned about back in 2016 are still happening and victims’ pensions are being routinely destroyed – both in the UK and offshore. At the Transparency Task Force Symposium in November 2017, one victim stood up and related a remarkably similar story to mine about his treatment by FCA. The delegates – who included pension trustees, solicitors, police officers, victims and the wonderful Andy Agathangelou – were stunned and disgusted.

So, if anybody knows anyone at the FCA who might like to do a bit of regulating no more than twice a week, could they please let me know?

Here is the video Pension Life constructed with the help of Jeremy Donaghy-Sutton (a senior airline captain and safety instructor and Ark victim)

What is a Pension Scam?

May 16, 2018
Introduction: Anatomy of a Pension Scam
£11,000,000,000. That is an awfully big number. But this is what financial fraud of pension and investment scamming cost thousands of victims in 2016 according to reported statistics. This begs the urgent question: why have so few – if any – of them been prosecuted?

The Pensions Regulator’s Lesley Titcomb has now officially and publicly declared that scammers are criminals.

Pension Life´s book: Anatomy of a Pension Scam is going to be made into a series of blogs. The purpose of the book is to get the message out there and warn the public; the financial services industry in the UK and offshore; governments; regulators; ombudsmen; crime agencies, HMRC, and the scammers that this huge-scale financial crime will NO LONGER BE TOLERATED. The authorities who have stood by and allowed this to happen have to snap out of their complacency, laziness and incompetence, and actually take some action to bring these criminals to justice.

What we need now is all of the scammers behind bars and the keys thrown away.

The actions of these fraudsters have shaken the confidence in the pensions and investment industry as a whole. Not to mention the harm it has inflicted upon innocent, hard-working people on a huge scale.

Evidence suggests that in the past seven years, there have been many £ billions lost to pension and investment scams – there are no precise “official” figures. But the dreadful fact is that the scammers who were targeting victims back in 2010, continued doing it in 2011; and 2012; and 2013; and 2014; and 2015, and 2016. And they are still doing it today. Happily and profitably. And nobody has stopped them or brought them to account for the horrific financial damage and distress they have caused.

With this in mind it is hard to decide who is the devil himself, the vicious, greedy, cold-hearted scammers or the feeble authorities who let them get away with it. REPEATEDLY!

HMRC were warned by the industry about the potential for scams if the role of compulsory professional trustee was removed pre 2006. In a letter of March 2004, Nick White, specialist pension solicitor warned: “It is essential that schemes offering self-administration and wide investment choice should have in place an independent person who has sufficient control of scheme assets to prevent abuse and sufficient knowledge and experience to know abuse when he sees it.

That does not necessarily mean that the system of pension trustees should be retained in its current form but, if it is abolished without an effective replacement, we envisage that within the next 5 years the degree of abuse of such schemes by both incompetent and dishonest individuals will:
- further stain the reputation of pensions generally; and
- severely embarrass the government responsible for letting it happen
Reputable professionals in the industry and the Government share a common aim of building a system of tax rules that is simple but is robust enough to last for a working lifetime without major overhaul. Such a system needs to contain adequate protections against abuse.”

Nick White’s warning was brought to my attention by Martin Tilley who is director of technical services at Dentons Pension Management. Martin has written some excellent blogs and articles on the subject of pension scams and my favourite has to be this one:

http://www.retirement-planner.co.uk/9344/cleaning-up-pension-scams-with-soap-operas

Either way the one thing we can be sure of is that it has to stop NOW.

So watch this space as we at Pension Life, prepare a documentary series about pension and investment scams. There are many victims who would be only too happy to help recreate the exact wording – both written and verbal – of the scammers’ pitch. With their help we hope to create a military-style, zero tolerance campaign to wage against all the guilty parties until every last one of them is brought to justice.
May 15, 2018
Keep Calm: Just avoid OMI/Quilter

OLD MUTUAL INTERNATIONAL HYPOCRISY OVER NEW MALTA REGULATIONS

OMI’s Peter Kenny advises the industry to “keep calm”.

He obviously wants to be able to keep flogging these useless, pointless and exorbitantly expensive insurance bonds to thousands of innocent victims.

With the announcement of new regulations in Malta for QROPS, International Adviser has quoted managing director of OMI (soon to be Quilter) Peter Kenny: “Old Mutual International is encouraging all market participants to help rid the industry of inappropriate structured products“.

Kenny´s statement, to the untrained eye, may seem logical and thoughtful. However, here at Pension Life we are well educated about OMI´s dirty laundry and routine use of toxic structured notes.

The statement Peter Kenny made is downright hypocritical. He is clouding the irresponsible and negligent actions OMI have made in the past, and the damage the high-risk structured products have inflicted on pension funds. Kenny hasn´t even mentioned the huge quarterly fees OMI have applied to ever-dwindling pension funds.

These fees are OMI´s way of clawing back the commissions paid to the scammers. And this is why victims are tied into these insurance bonds for so many years, and why there are such enormous penalties for exiting the bonds.

Kenny told International Adviser:

“The Malta Financial Services Authority’s proposed new regulations are sensible, appropriate measures to be taking.

Specifically, we welcome greater restrictions on structured notes. Old Mutual International is encouraging all market participants to help rid the industry of inappropriate structured products which are having a damaging impact on investor confidence and outcomes.

Over the years, Old Mutual International has taken action to tighten its criteria, introduced a maximum fee level, and in some cases banned certain types of structured products from certain institutions.

Not all structured products are bad, and they can be useful for clients who want a degree of capital protection whilst also providing exposure to investment markets or a fixed return. However, many structured products are often very complex in design. Regrettably, some investors and advisers will not always possess the depth of knowledge required to fully understand the risks and rewards associated with investing in such structured products.”

Doesn´t that sound lovely in theory! However, I´m sure the victims of the CWM pension scam would not agree.

“Specifically, we welcome greater restrictions on structured notes. Old Mutual International is encouraging all market participants to help rid the industry of inappropriate structured products which are having a damaging impact on investor confidence and outcomes.”

For the last eight years at least, OMI have allowed the use of structured notes. We have seen many examples of victims having 100% of their portfolios invested in structured notes – including the fraudulent Leonteq ones. We have the hundreds of victims of the CWM pension scandal as evidence of this.

Peter Kenny must surely be aware that OMI were happy to invest the life savings of the CWM victims into structured products which clearly stated at the top of the investment sheets (so as even the most short-sighted OMI employee could not miss it):

HIGH-RISK AND FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS ONLY

Here at Pension Life, we do hope that even trainees at OMI are aware that pension fund members are retail investors and should be placed into low to medium risk, liquid investments. However, it seems that these details obviously don´t feature in OMI´s training manual.

Structured products are illiquid and they often lock the fund in for fixed terms – up to 5 years. Added to this is the fact that victims were also locked into ten or eleven-year term OMI´s life assurance policies. It is absolutely ridiculous to lock people into a product which does nothing to protect the funds and only serves to erode the value of the funds with the exorbitant quarterly charges which inexorably “drag” the fund down.

“Over the years, Old Mutual International has taken action to tighten its criteria, introduced a maximum fee level, and in some cases banned certain types of structured products from certain institutions.”

This is an outright lie and we have hard evidence that even in the past couple of years, OMI has done nothing to tighten its criteria in any of the CWM cases. In fact, OMI were still accepting fraudulent Leonteq structured notes up until very recently. Peter Kenny is being dishonest as the reality is that there was no thought or care at all over a very long period.

One Pension Life member started with a fund of £38,000. His last valuation showed that it was now worth just £800. When OMI apply their next quarterly fee, the entire fund will be wiped out as OMI simply kept taking their fees based on 11% of the original value (as opposed to the constantly dropping value). But clearly OMI didn’t care or even show any interest – they made a packet in fees, paid a huge commission to the CWM scammers and sat back and did nothing while the fund dwindled to nothing.

“Not all structured products are bad, and they can be useful for clients who want a degree of capital protection…”

I highlight here a “degree of capital protection” – just a degree? Pension funds are normally a person’s life savings. So what does a “degree” mean? 10%, 50% perhaps 75%? The degree of capital protection in the case of the CWM/OMI scam was 0%.

“Regrettably, some investors and advisers will not always possess the depth of knowledge required to fully understand the risks and rewards associated with investing in such structured products.”

Regrettably for the investors who were victims of the CWM scammers and OMI, they most definitely did not possess the depth of knowledge required to fully understand the risks. They put their faith in the smartly- dressed scammers. With promises of high returns, the high risk of the investments and high fees to be charged were left unmentioned. OMI were supposed to protect the victims’ interests but failed dismally to lift a finger to help arrest the downward spiral of the funds.

OMI just sat there like a lazy, greedy, callous parasite and watched the victims’ retirement savings dwindle.

Malta´s new regulations have been put into place to protect investors from scammers like CWM and firms like OMI. I think OMI are secretly seething as the changes to the regulations will surely affect their already dropping profits.

International Adviser also reported on 30 Apr 18:

“Quilter, formerly Old Mutual Wealth, said its assets under management and administration had fallen in the first quarter of 2018.”

Here´s hoping they fall further – much further – 2/3rds further like Pension Life members Pete and Val´s did. Peter Kenny needs to experience a taste of how the victims of the CWM scam felt at finally receiving the news that their pension funds had been left in tatters.

May 10, 2018
Protecting your pension fund from pension vampires

Protect your pension fund at all costs. Pension “vampires” disguised as friendly and legitimate pension advisers are still out there – prowling the land trying to find victims. Ever evolving and changing their strategies to seduce you into transferring your pension fund, often into a high-risk, toxic investment that rewards them with high commission but leaves your pension fund and your health frazzled.

Pension vampires are very good at wearing disguises AND their credible eloquence and charming manner are sure to get your attention. This is why here at Pension Life we want to raise public awareness to discourage individuals from being drawn in by the vampires’ compelling sales techniques. We want victims to learn how to protect your pension fund.

Con artists and pension scammers love to cold call and give the impression they are official government representatives or fully qualified and regulated advisers. They are very clever at worming their way into victims’ homes and setting these vulnerable people up to get scammed out of their pensions.

THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN

If you are cold called – please just hang up.

Much like a vampire, once you have invited them into your life, it is very difficult to get rid of them. They will trick you into transferring you pension fund into their care – often with promises of high returns and low risk. In reality, they will bleed you dry.

What these pension vampires leave out of their convincing sales pitch is the high commission charges they will add every time they put your fund into a new or different investment. Often the commission charges heavily outweigh the interest that will be applied to the investment should it be successful.

Pension vampires hunt in packs and the first one you meet will NOT be the last. Often the first pension vampire will introduce you to several others. Each one will want to have a suck on your fund. This type of pension scam is called fractional scamming its happening more and more. Please have a look at our previous blog on fractional scammers for more information on how this type of scam works.

Pension vampires not only use cold calling techniques, they also send emails and use the postal system. The content is usually the same – they offer you a free pension review.

Nothing in life comes for free – the review may seem to be free but what comes after will be devastating to your pension fund and your health.

Pete and Val fell victim to pension vampires using a pension liberation scam – here’s the tragic story of how their pension fund was left decimated by a firm of unlicensed so-called advisers: Continental Wealth Management.

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May 2, 2018
Pension liberation scammers of Successful Pensions JAILED

Two pension liberation scammers have been sentenced to time behind bars AND a recovery of funds after creating an elaborate pension liberation scam, involving around 23 victims and nearly 1 million pounds of pension funds. Successful Pensions sure was unsuccessful for all involved.

Anthony Locke, 33, from Christchurch in the UK, was sentenced to a five-year jail term, after being found guilty of 23 counts of fraud by false representation and three counts of money laundering.

Ray King, 54, who was employed by Lock, was also found guilty at the trial of 14 counts of fraud by false representation and given a three-year jail sentence.

FT Adviser reported:

“According to investigating officer Paul Sullivan, of Dorset Police, between September 2013 and April 2014 Mr Locke obtained almost £1m from various pension companies, which represented the ‘pension pots’ of the victims in this case”.

A timetable was set out for Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings in relation to the recovery of funds from the defendants.

Successful Pensions, Lock’s company, allegedly created an ‘elaborate façade’ comprising of hundreds of documents to convince genuine companies, including Friends Life and Virgin Money, that they were operating a genuine occupational pension scheme.

Successful Pensions, set up a website to attract people who were interested in pension liberation. The victims were given a 50% cash payout on their funds’ total worth, with the other half to be re-invested – reportedly in eco-friendly investment schemes.

Unfortunately, there were no investments. Rather than cream large commissions by reinvesting the funds into high-risk toxic assets (which most scammers do), they instead laundered the money into offshore accounts including Lock’s Mum’s account and his ex-partner’s!

The scammers then went on to live the life of Riley with the victims’ money. They treated themselves to an Aston Martin Vantage, Porsche 911 and Mercedes B180, along with lots of other luxury items and nice holidays.

Paul Sullivan also stated:

“Not only have the victims lost half their pensions but now may face financial penalties from HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) who will want to recover the lost tax (on the pension liberation).

The sentences imposed send out a clear message to fraudsters who perpetrate these types of offences.”

This is indeed positive news. But the message it sends out isn’t good enough. These fraudsters were clearly not very bright and made no attempt at smoke and mirrors. They scammed 23 people out of nearly £1 million. What about those in other schemes that scammed hundreds and sometimes even thousands of victims out of many £ millions? And did so repeatedly.

To my mind, the message sent out is that only the stupid scammers who don’t aim high get caught and punished. The more clever and cunning ones get away unscathed time and time again. And are left free and unfettered to enjoy their expensive lifestyles at the expense of their victims.

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As always, Pension Life would like to remind you that if you are planning to transfer any pension funds, make sure that you are transferring into a legitimate scheme, get all the information in writing and get a third party to check the details.

If you have been the victim of a scam hear how Pension Life member Jessica M.J. who lost two thirds of her pension to Continental Wealth Management, talks about dealing with stress.

May 1, 2018
Maltese QROPS regulations to change
Malta has announced changes to the way their QROPS funds will be regulated. The changes will come into effect from 2^nd July 2018, meaning that clients introduced by an adviser regulated only for insurance business will not be accepted as an investment adviser.

A letter this week from STM Malta reads:

“We are writing to inform you of some changes to Malta regulations which we believe will have a significant impact on the way that you conduct your pensions business in Malta. Whilst the final guidelines have yet to be published, it is anticipated that the changes will be brought into effect from 2^nd July 2018. With these changes in mind, we felt it is a good idea that we commence discussions regarding how this will impact on some of our processes going forward.

In particular, the changes will require:
- An expectation of further oversight from pension trustees in relation to investment selections by members as recommended by advisers;
- A mandated restriction on investment in structured notes to 30% of a member’s portfolio with a maximum of 20% per issuer;
- A restriction on those permitted to give advice in relation to investment selection to advisers authorised to give investment advice via MIFID or equivalent regime. For clarity and from discussions with the regulator, we understand that a licence to advise on insurance products will not be considered an equivalent regime; and
- A requirement that Pension Trustees obtain and maintain information about the fitness and propriety of investment advisers selected by clients.
From the consultation process, we understand that the Regulator has experienced a number of complaints in relation to pensions and these changes are intended to address these issues.”

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Whilst this is an enormous step in the right direction for Malta, they are not the only country offering QROPS and therefore here at Pension Life we are calling for these regulations to be applied worldwide.

The lists here show that there are 28 other countries offering QROPS schemes. I can’t help but feel that unregulated (for investments) advisory firms will just change countries and continue to offer unregulated investment advice to innocent victims – but using QROPS in other jurisdictions.

Furthermore the decision has been made and announced, but will not come into place until 2nd July. That is nine weeks away. That’s 45 working days, 63 if they work weekends, that the unregulated advisers have to slog their guts out and get as many new “clients” to transfer their hard-earned funds – and invest them into unregulated, high risk, toxic investments. This may be the last opportunity to earn huge commissions in Malta. Then I guess these firms can have a wee holiday until they decide how best to alter the way they work.

STM’s letter goes on to state:

“Going forward we will need to fill the advice gap that is created and it occurs to us that there are two possible options for advisers going forward:

a) The adviser upgrades the license to become a regulated Investment Adviser; or

b) The investment is selected through a Discretionary Fund Manager which is a regulated Investment Manager”

What worries me is that the advisers with only an insurance license will be able to go on to become regulated, “upgraded” as the letter states, to fill the gap, so the process may be made easier for them.
- In response to the four changes reported by STM, I can see no mention of their past failures on a grand scale to carry out even the most basic due diligence on advisers or investments. STM has said nothing about the disastrous consequences of its own negligence – particularly in the case of the Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund;
- A restriction on investment in structured notes to 30% of a member’s portfolio with a maximum of 20% per issuer is still way too high – about 30% too high (and what about UCIS funds?);
- Restrictions on those permitted to give investment advice will need to be firmly policed. Firms with only an insurance license will inevitably try to continue as before. How will this be reported? And what action will be taken if trustees continue to accept dealing instructions from firms with no investment license? (A slap on the wrist with a soggy kipper?); and
- How will Pension Trustees decide whether investment advisers are fit and proper? One man’s fit and proper could be another man’s dodgy dealer.
One Pension Trustee in Malta told me recently that a grave concern of the industry is that firms who abide by the letter of the changes will lose out to firms that ignore them. This will set up an unequal competitive edge for those who interpret the new regulations more “loosely”. So, to make sure this new regime doesn’t end up as a bag of chocolate balls, the Maltese regulator has got to keep on his toes.

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As always, Pension Life would like to remind you that if you are planning to transfer any pension funds, make sure that you are transferring into a legitimate regulated scheme. Get all the information in writing and get a third party to double check the details.

FOLLOW PENSION LIFE ON TWITTER TO KEEP UP WITH ALL THINGS PENSION RELATED, GOOD AND BAD.
May 1, 2018
Celtic Wealth Management BRIBED British Steelworkers

Just a few weeks ago we reported on Mike Pickett, the first British Steelworker – SIPPS pension scam victim. But now there is more shocking news on Celtic Wealth Management – the culprits behind this toxic transfer which found victims’ pension funds put in danger in February of this year.

It would seem Celtic “advisers” were so desperate to nab victims that they bribed them with sporting event tickets.

New Model Adviser revealed one victim showed them a text message that Celtic Wealth had sent him:

The text, which appears to be sent from Celtic Wealth representative Liam Powell and is dated 7 November 2017, states: ‘Hope you’re keeping well, wondering if you would like 2 complimentary tickets for Ospreys home match this Friday evening. If you’d be kind enough to let me know that would be great. Regards Liam Celtic.’

The victim then informed them that other colleagues had been offered tickets to see football team Swansea City play in the Premier League.

I guess Celtic Wealth was aiming at covering both sporting sides to ensure they had a wider range of victims to bribe. This tactic may also have distracted victims from the fact that they were an unregulated company meaning they were not authorised to provide investment advice to anyone – ever. Even with free sporting tickets!

Active Wealth, which WAS an authorised company, was also involved in this SIPPS scandal with Celtic Wealth Management. Celtic acted as “introducers” and gave talks to the British Steelworkers – and the bribes – which I’m also informed included plates of sausage and chips. Active Wealth, an authorised firm, completed the pension transfers.

Active Wealth has now surrendered it’s pension transfer permissions following FCA action in relation to the advice given to these steelworkers.

Malta has just announced that they will be changing their regulations surrounding pension advisers, stating that NO unauthorised advisory firms will be able to introduce investors to regulated trustee firms. Isn’t it a shame that this is all a little too late for the victims of unregulated introducers. Furthermore, this only applies to Malta – for the time being. The British regulator would do well to bring in similar rules – as well as 28 further countries on HMRC’s QROPS list. Firmer regulation like this would stop unregulated firms like Celtic Wealth Management from up-selling toxic pension advice.

We will be waiting in the stands, wringing our hands anxiously, waiting for any more fall out from the British Steel case. British Steelworkers were, sadly, sitting ducks for these unregulated foxes like Celtic Wealth.

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As always, Pension Life would like to remind you that if you are planning to transfer any pension funds, make sure that you are transferring into a legitimate scheme, get all the information in writing and get a third party to check the details.

If you have been the victim of a scam hear how Pension Life member Jessica M.J. who lost two thirds of her pension to Continental Wealth Management, talks about dealing with stress.

FOLLOW PENSION LIFE ON TWITTER TO KEEP UP WITH ALL THINGS PENSION RELATED, GOOD AND BAD.

April 30, 2018