Tag: Pension Liberation

Transferring pensions to scammers – the ABC of shame

HOW DO PENSION SCAMS WORK?

Every pension scam starts with a negligent transfer. Ceding providers hand over millions of pounds to pension scammers every year. Firms – from Aviva to Zurich – ignore warnings by regulators and HMRC. The providers tick their boxes; the scammers make their millions; the victims are ruined.

The ceding providers have something significant in common with the scammers. When we expose some of the scammers, their lawyers swing into action. I once had letters from Carter Ruck, Mishcon de Reya and DWF land on my desk all in one day. The scammers’ lawyers bleat loudly about their “poor” clients’ reputations.

Every pension scam starts with a negligent transfer

But the ceding providers are just as bad: their lawyers think it is fine to facilitate financial crime. Here’s an extract from recent letter from one of them:

“You state you have “hard evidence” that our customers “have suffered serious loss because of our negligence”. You
have not provided any such evidence. Please therefore produce such ‘hard evidence’ by return.”

This lawyer went on to request evidence that the provider ought to have known that the receiving scheme in
question was a scam. She went on to state that my allegations were “wholly unfounded” and to demand that I take down this blog:

PENSION OMBUDSMAN COMPLAINTS AGAINST NEGLIGENT CEDING TRUSTEES

But this pension provider has given me no reason to take the blog down – and no justification for the claim that the firm is “innocent” of handing over victims’ pensions to obvious scammers. Back in 2010, the Pensions Regulator warned providers about transferring pension funds to scams:

“Any administrator who simply ticks a box and allows a transfer post July 2010 is failing in their duty as a trustee and as such are liable to compensate the beneficiary.”

But the providers have studiously ignored the regulator’s warning for nine years. And thousands have lost their pensions as a result of this sickening negligence.

Transferring pensions to scammers

Here is an “A to Z” of the pensions industry’s negligence in handing over thousands of pensions in defiance of numerous warnings since 2010. Note: to my knowledge not a single administrator has voluntarily compensated their victims – and all have emphatically denied they did anything wrong.

Transferring pensions to scammers – the ABC of shame

Aviva: Second only to Aegon in our list of shame, Aviva transferred numerous pensions from October 2013 onwards. This was well after the Pensions Regulator’s “Scorpion” warning. The largest of these was £258,684.05 at the request of well-known scammer Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions. Ward had been behind the £27 million Ark liberation scam in 2010. On 21st January 2015, Aviva’s Robert Palmer told me they needed no help or advice with avoiding negligent transfers to obvious scams. One month later, Aviva handed over £23,500 to the GFS scam.

British Steel: Long before the much-publicised handing over of multiple members to scammers in 2018, British Steel was handing over pensions to the Hong Kong GFS QROPS scam in 2014 . Mainly advised by serial scammer David Vilka of Square Mile International Financial Services in the Czech Republic, the GFS scam invested hundreds of victims’ funds in UCIS funds such as Blackmore Global.

Clerical Medical: Another disgraceful firm with a long history of handing over pensions to Ark, Capita Oak, Westminster and GFS in 2014.

This A to Z of shame goes on and on – and includes all the big names (who should have known better):

April 24, 2019
Raising standards – financial advisers and qualifications

I read an interesting article recently which has prompted this blog, written by Blair duQuesnay, CFA®, CFP® – an investment adviser at Ritholtz Wealth Management, LLC. Blair suggests that the most important change needed in the financial industry is qualifications. Poorly qualified advisers give poor investment advice. Bad investments advice leads to loss of funds.

Blair has said one thing that underpins all the work we do at Pension Life:

“The bar to hold oneself out as a financial advisor is low, shockingly low. This is all the more shocking because the stakes are so high. Clients have only one chance to save and invest for retirement. If bad advice leads to the unnecessary loss of capital, there is no time to start over.”

Read Blair’s piece here:

http://blairbellecurve.com/substance/?fbclid=IwAR1or8YzCkxUNh_M5-o9e7WngaYJXXV_vjyWI92ZjXEXqG5x9DWzJMA8rgc

I have written many times in the past about unqualified financial advisers, leading victims blindly into wholly unsuitable investments. These unqualified “snake-oil salesmen” often put most (or sometimes all) of their clients funds into unregulated, toxic, illiquid, no-hoper rubbish which has high commissions for the broker to earn but leave the pension or investment portfolio with an unrecoverable dent.

If investors are unsure about what qualifications an adviser needs to give advice on investments then please have a read of this blog: “Qualified or not qualified? That is the question”

Blair (pictured) talks about substance and the need for higher standards among financial advisers. Whilst I love her thoughts, I know how difficult this might be to achieve. We see wholly unqualified scammers posing as fully qualified IFAs time and time again. These scammers are very good at acting the part and the victims have no idea they are dealing with a fraudster – and sometimes go on for years believing they are dealing with a proper financial adviser.

When accepting financial advice always ask the ‘adviser’ what financial qualifications they have. If it transpires they are not fully qualified to give investment or pension advice – walk away and find someone who is.

Blair’s words highlight this issue perfectly, stating, “What sort of education, credentials, and work experience do these people have? It depends. You cannot tell which type of firm, business model, or regulatory space in which they operate or if they have the right training and qualifications to give financial advice. One broker is a CFA charterholder, while another down the hall had three weeks of sales training and took the Series 7.”

Often the best scammers are the ones with the sales training – they know how to push the ‘hard sell’, make the victim think they are ‘missing out’ if they don’t sign straight away. In offshore firms – especially – we see job adverts for new ‘financial advisers’, which state that they are looking for people with sales backgrounds. All too often there is no mention of the necessity of a financial services background, let alone any financial qualifications. Often guys that used to sell cars or holiday apartments will end up selling pension transfers. These are the ones you definitely want to avoid.

Blair goes on to say, “There’s a common phrase that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. Working a 40-hour week with no holidays or vacation, that takes almost five years. I would argue this number is low. I practice ashtanga yoga, a method that adds one new posture when the previous one is mastered. I spent over four years on the same posture. In that daily work of making tiny incremental progress toward the end goal, I overcame fears, corrected weaknesses, and powered through with pure determination. That is substance.”

Blair highlights that we live in a time of instant gratification and almost laziness in regards to making money. From multi-million-pound Youtubers, rich from being stupid in videos, to big-bottomed rich girls selling their life stories to become famous – it is all about obtaining difficult things easily.

Twenty-first-century living is driven by the need for wealth and the need for that wealth to be earned FAST!

These desires are what the scammers use to their advantage. They tell their victims that their funds will be placed in high-return investments. Investments that will easily add great value to their pension fund, meaning they will be able to have a lavish retirement.

The thought of possibly doubling your pension fund in just ten years can seem like something of a dream come true. AND, unfortunately, a dream is usually what this is. Placing your funds in supposedly high-return investments – ALWAYS – means taking a high-risk.

Whilst some high-risk investments do pay off, they are no place for a pension fund – life savings are what people are depending on to keep them in their later years. A pension fund is not a fund to be risked: it should be placed in a broad spectrum of liquid, low-to-medium risk investments. Maybe a small proportion could go into a higher-risk investment but only if the investor’s risk profile says he is comfortable with that degree of risk. Most people – even high-net-worth clients – don’t want to lose ANY money.

A trustworthy and fully qualified financial adviser would know this and he would ensure the advice he gives you is in your best interests – not his. The unqualified salesman giving “advice”, will usually opt for the fund that gives the highest commissions. He can walk away with a fat wallet (probably never to be seen again) and the bleak future of your pension fund is not something he will lose sleep over. But you will, when the high-risk investment in which your entire fund is trapped starts to rapidly lose value.

If the gentle reader doubts these dire warnings, just look at the facts about investment losses that we highlighted in a recent blog:

Who killed the pension? Scammers; ceding providers; introducers; HMRC?

£236,000,000 London Capital & Finance fund (bond), but also:

£120,000,000 Axiom Legal Financing Fund

£456,000,000 LM Group of Funds

£207,000,000 Premier Group of Funds

£94,000,000 Leonteq structured notes

Without stating the blooming obvious, that is well over one billion pounds’ worth of AVOIDABLE losses – and still just the tip of the iceberg.

Blair finishes her article by saying, “We owe it to our future clients to raise the bar. People deserve the reassurance that the person giving investment advice on their life savings has a baseline of knowledge. Until then, clients must continue to do their research on advisors. Look for those who have put in the time to learn their craft and have degrees and credentials to prove it. Often these are not the best salespeople, but at least these advisers have substance behind them.”

What a lovely finish and what a very important statement. Financial advisers are not salesmen, they are financial advisers. Their work should be conducted in a way that best suits the needs of the individual – each individual, separately. And there is one way and one way only to invest a client’s money: do a proper, thorough, professional risk assessment and then invest strictly in accordance with that the resulting risk profile.

Slow, steady and fully qualified financial advice always wins the race.

April 1, 2019
More negligence from trustees Berkeley Burke – Store First

Another victim of Berkeley Burke SIPPS investments into Store First storage pods has come forward. 55-year-old factory worker Robert McCarthy, of Ebbw Vale, said he has lost more than £30,000 through a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). He was duped into the transfer and investment by unregulated firm Jackson Francis which was liquidated in 2014. His investment may or may not be worthless – depending on whether Store First is wound up later in 2019.

Robert McCarthy – who is one of 500 Store First investors who used Berkeley Burke as their SIPP provider – made a serious complaint against Berkeley Burke – and spoke to BBC News on the matter.

McCarthy said:

“Basically I’ve lost my private pension. Thirteen years of hard work, they’ve taken it, it’s gone.

I’ll never trust anyone again. And I can’t believe that they can get away with what they’ve done.”

The BBC has reported Store First as saying that: “In McCarthy’s case, Berkeley Burke failed to instruct Store First on how to manage the pods they purchased as part of a SIPPS. This means that the store pods have stood empty since their purchase. With returns based on rent paid for using the pods purchased, no returns have been made on these empty pods.”

This scam follows the same path as so many other scams we see: an unregulated advisory firm, Liverpool-based company Jackson Francis, introduced the victims to Berkely Burke and the Store First investment. (Jackson Francis was wound up in 2014). With promises of the investment being ‘the next best thing’ and also guaranteed high returns, 500 people signed their pensions over to the SIPPS provider Berkeley Burke.

Berkeley Burke then invested the SIPPS into the store pods, but failed to give permission for Store First to rent the pods out on behalf of the investors – meaning they stood empty. Store First said they were never contracted to manage, advertise or let the storage pods. That responsibility, they say, lies with the pension trustee, Berkeley Burke.

This is not the first time Berkeley Burke have been accused of negligence. In the High Court last October, Berkeley Burke was found to have failed to show due diligence in vetting unregulated investments for another client. The company are currently seeking to appeal against the decision. But with a further 14 individuals, based in Wales alone, making complaints against them, there is definitely no smoke without fire.

Victims were also invested into the Store First storage pods via Capita Oak 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. Victims of this scam were lured in by a chap named XXXX who also sold them Thurlstone liberation “loans”. Victims who took the ‘loan’ now face huge tax bills from HMRC for unauthorised payments.

Whilst Capita Oak tuned out to be a scam (currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office) and victims have lost huge chunks of their pensions, the initial presentation they were given made the scheme look 100% genuine.

I spend a lot of time sharing our blogs over Facebook into different groups, trying to get the message across about pension scams. Interestingly, many of my posts are met with negative comments.

Last week in a comment on an expat forum, I was told that my blog about expats being targeted by scammers was “irrelevant”. I have also had comments like: “I would never fall for a scam.” However, there is clear evidence that falling for a scam doesn´t make you stupid or naive – especially when the scammers are so good at disguising their sham schemes as genuine investments.

Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions, our most prolific pension scammer, was a fully qualified (to the highest level) and registered financial adviser in Spain. He was also a registered pensions trustee (he has only just been banned as a pension trustee – despite his shady past). Yet Ward has promoted not just the Capita Oak/Store First scam, but also many, many more over a ten-year period. Some of these include Ark, Evergreen (New Zealand) QROPS, Henley Retirement Benefits Scheme, London Quantum, Elysian Bio Fuels, Continental Wealth Management.

Therefore, when it comes to the crunch, it is incredibly easy to fall for a pension scam – especially when it is registered by HMRC and promoted by a qualified financial adviser. It is hard to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys (who are so good at clever disguises). Pension scam victims include airline pilots, doctors and nurses, teachers, scientists, bankers and even a solicitor or two. Anyone can fall for a cleverly-sold scam – and they frequently do.

Toby Whittaker, owner of Store First, as you can see from his Twitter page, is still promoting Group First and Store First as going concerns. He is also fighting the winding-up petition by the Insolvency Service against Store First.

Despite the fact that the Capita Oak scam now lies in the hands of Dalriada Trustees (appointed by the Pensions Regulator) and the ongoing petition to have Store First wound up (purportedly in the “public interest”), Toby Whittaker still stands proud and says he had no idea that his company was being used as part of a scam.

Over a period of two years, Store First owner Toby Whittaker paid £33m commission to Transeuro Worldwide Holdings Ltd, which funded Jackson Francis.

No one knows where the money went, but it certainly didn´t go to the victims of this scam. We can bet it lined the pockets of the scamming salesmen who incorrectly invested over 1,000 victims’ pensions into Store First.

If the UK government succeeds in its petition to wind Store First up, the hundreds of victims will lose all the funds in their pensions.

The message here is:

Scams are registered by HMRC – which can make them appear to be official and bona fide.

Scammers can make their “schemes” appear to be genuine and to offer viable investments.

Pensions should be invested in low to medium risk, liquid investments.

Many funds that promise high returns are also high-risk and not safe for your pension fund.

Know ALL the facts about your investment and what questions to ask.

Pension liberation scams are now, thankfully, few and far between scammers are busier than ever, so be careful when investing: scammers lurk all over the globe.

Always use a qualified adviser who works for a fully-regulated firm that has the correct investment license – and not just an insurance license.

So, if it sounds too good to be true – it probably is.

And finally…

Cold called and offered a free pension review – JUST HANG UP.

Safeguard your pension from the scammers.

February 20, 2019
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
February 17, 2019
POOF! – there goes your whole life savings

Scammers 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:

Poem

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.

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.

4 – 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.

7 – 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.

A 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

January 30, 2019
Pension scammers must be stopped

In the Pension Life office, we have been wondering how to get the information about pension scams more widely seen, heard and taken on board. We’d like to ensure the masses are educated and aware that pension scammers can strike from many angles, and with a variety of “deals”. Pension scammers must be stopped and together we can work towards this.

A quick Google search of the phrase “Pension Scam” shows no end of advice available, so why is this information not being spread to the public more widely and effectively?

Why was 2017 the WORST year for pension scams?

Google’s current top-ranking search return for the phrase “pension scam” is How to avoid a pension scam by Pension Wise. This site offers simple and basic information on how to spot a scam and how to report it.

This is followed by The Pensions Regulator (tPR) which, offers 5-step advice to protect a pension from pension scammers.

In third place, the Money Advice Service offers information on “How to spot a pension scam”. Money Advice highlight that scammers can be very good at disguising themselves as bona fide, regulated companies.

The FCA’s website comes in fourth, with their information on smart scams, advising people to be aware that the offer of a free pension review is often cause for concern and suspicion.

But, even with all this information out there, 2017 was still the worst year ever for pension scams. It seems that despite changes to regulations, scammers seem to come out on top nine times out of ten. Serial scammers are able to move onward and upward, scam after scam after scam. Officials, like the regulators, ombudsmen, arbiters and HMRC just stand idly by letting it happen again and again and again.

Maybe the problem is that the scammers are ever evolving in their behavior and tactics – and the authorities just can’t keep up. Pension Life came about because of the Ark pension liberation scam. But scamming tactics have moved on considerably.

We now we have noticeably less liberation and more investment scams where the introducer heads for the investment with the highest commissions, with no regard for the risk or fees that are applied to the fund.

Furthermore, if someone does approach you via a cold call claiming to be a viable company with a convincing sales pitch – how do you know if what they are saying is genuine? How do you know if they are a qualified financial adviser? Unfortunately, in the business of pensions and finance, the sad truth is that you need to: trust slowly; question quickly.

In the CWM case, victims saw unqualified, unregulated advisers placing low to medium risk investors’ entire funds into high-risk, fixed-term structured notes.

Fractional scamming is also on the up. Unqualified, unregulated firms posing as financial advisers act as “introducers” – and often introduce thousands of victims to outright scams. The funds then go through various other parties’ hands to ensure everyone gets their piece of the pie. Each party involved along the chain, creams their bit off the top of the pension fund, until the fund is a fraction of its former self. This means it will take years to get the pension back to its original state, let alone to start showing a profit.

Perhaps one of the most iniquitous aspects of pension and investment scams is the routine use of insurance bonds. (a significant part of the fractional scam and an unnecessary second “wrapper”). The life offices themselves are a big part of the pension scam industry.

Firms such as OMI, SEB, RL360 and Generali accept business repeatedly from unlicensed firms and known scammers. These so-called “life offices” (although they really ought to be called “death offices”) sit back and watch while these scammers gamble away the victims’ life savings on toxic structured notes and high-risk investments. Despite reporting on the inexorable destruction of the funds, firms like Generali et al just keep on taking their fees every quarter – and will sometimes do so until there is nothing left in the fund.

The best advice we can give, is to ensure you know exactly who you are dealing with and where your money will be going – every penny of it.

There is no such thing as “free”, and there will ALWAYS be commissions and fees on any pension transfer, legitimate or not. But however much it is – as in REALLY IS – the client needs to know and accept these costs. Many advisory firms conceal the real costs and the clients only find out what they are when it is too late, and the damage has been done.

Make sure you have everything in writing AND read it all – at least three times, if not more!

Make sure you understand everything: the costs, fixed terms, the risk level of investments – and if you don´t, then ask more questions.

Keep a regular eye on your fund; don´t trust any company 100%; make sure you know exactly what your fund is doing and do not ever be fobbed off with the explanation that any losses are “just paper losses”.

If in doubt – JUST SAY NO!!

I am writing a series of blogs about pensions, pension scammers and how to safeguard your pension fund from fraudsters. Please make sure you read as many as possible and ensure you know everything you should about your pension transfer. You only get one shot at getting it right – if you get it wrong, the damage may never be undone.

If we can ensure the masses are educated about pension scammers and financial fraud, we can help stop the scammers in their tracks – globally.

January 30, 2019
Hidden dangers of charges that ruin your pension investments

In many pension scam cases, we find victims telling us that they were not informed about the hidden charges that were applied to their fund. This is why it is essential to warn the public about the hidden dangers of charges that ruin your pension investments. These charges often take a huge chunk out of the fund before and during its new investments. Scammers lie about these charges, and victims never find out about them until it is too late.

The investments the scammers use are often high-risk and totally unsuitable for a pension fund. Pensions should be invested in diverse, low-to-medium risk assets which are prudent and liquid. And pensions don’t need an insurance wrapper at all, especially since the wrapper pays a whopping 8% commission to the scammers. And, sadly, much of the offshore advisory industry relies entirely on commissions – so the unethical advisers always chose the investments that pay the highest commissions. Unfortunately for the victims, the sweet-talking “advisers” are very good at concealing these hidden charges (commissions). They lure victims away from the small print and flash the promise of high – often “guaranteed” – returns.

Scammers – entirely reliant on commissions – are very good at blinding their victims from the risks they are inadvertently taking by putting their hard-earned cash into investments that pay the highest commissions. These scammers are pure salesmen, rather than proper financial advisers. Many of them are not QUALIFIED to give financial advice and they are only out for their “cut” of their victims’ hard-earned life savings. The hidden charges (commissions), paid unknowingly by the victims, buy the scammers their lavish lifestyle. Once the victims have signed on the dotted line, the scammers have no interest in what happens to the remainder of the funds after the commissions have been taken out.

So how does this illicit commission work? And how do the hidden charges damage a victim’s fund?

Let us assume a victim has a fund of £100,000. And he is transferring from a UK pension to an offshore QROPS.

First, a transfer specialist will charge a fee for the transfer advice. Then the offshore adviser will charge a setup fee. Then the QROPS provider will charge a setup fee. So, now we don’t have £100,000 any more – we probably only have £95,000 if we are lucky.

Then the scammer will put the victim into an insurance bond – such as OMI or RL360. The scammer will earn 8% on this (i.e. £8,000). But the victim won’t see this, because the insurance bond provider (OMI, RL360 etc) will claw this back over a ten-year period.

The scammers at OMI or RL360 will always keep a fat chunk of the fund in cash to pay their own fees – usually via hidden charges.

But let’s say they allow £80,000 of the remaining £95,000 to be invested, and let’s say the scammer at the advisory firm invests £40,000 in structured notes and £40,000 in “dirty” funds (i.e. the funds that pay the biggest commissions). This could be a further 10% in commission – so the victim will think he is getting £80,000 worth of investment, but in reality he is only getting £72,000 worth of investment. He simply can’t see the £8,000 in commissions because they are carefully hidden.

Eventually, the victim will realise that his fund is only shrinking, and that it will never have a chance to grow. Growth will be mathematically impossible, because of the constant, hidden fees/commissions. Some victims realise how they have been shafted quite quickly and are able to take positive action to move away from the rogue adviser. But for many, it is too late and too much damage has been done. Their funds will never have a chance to recover to anywhere near where they started. They would have been much better off sticking their retirement savings under the mattress. Because, of course, the “advisers” don’t care – they are long gone in their fancy sports cars and designer suits, sipping champagne at the local exclusive golf club.

In the UK we have regulations in place that prevent financial advisers from taking commissions. This works fine for the ethical, regulated sector of the financial advisory profession. But the unregulated offshore spivs who masquerade as “advisers” – and are, in reality, nothing more than silver-tonged salesmen – still do untold damage to the reputation of the industry by promoting unsuitable, high-risk, illiquid investments to low-risk pension savers (including those resident in the UK).

Many of the scammers are keen to get their UK-based victims’ pensions offshore to escape the protection of the British regulations. This, of course, prevents victims from having access to the FSCS and the ombudsmen.

A prime example of this is the dastardly duo: Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh. This pair of scammers received £ millions promoting the Capita Oak, Thurlstone Loans, Henley Retirement Benefits Scheme and Berkeley Burke SIPPS scams – leaving 1,200 victims worried sick about facing poverty in retirement.

The Nunn/McCreesh double act has gone on to promote their own toxic investment fund: the Blackmore Global Fund. This is a UCIS fund (Unregulated Collective Investment Scheme), which is illegal to promote to UK residents. Yet Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh sold these investments with the help of David Vilka of Square Mile Financial Services. (David Vilka is NOT a qualified financial adviser and Square Mile is not regulated to provide investment advice). Nobody knows where the Blackmore Global victims’ funds have gone – as Nunn and McCreesh will not have the fund audited (the last thing they want is anyone knowing what they have invested their victims’ life savings in). But one thing we can guarantee is that the scammers Nunn, McCreesh and Vilka made a pocket full of cash through hidden charges.

In all leading expat jurisdictions – most notably Spain and Dubai – the scammers are beavering away grinding the commission machines. They take their hidden charges with no remorse.

In the time it took the gentle reader to read this blog, at least one victim will have lost their life savings. And one scammer will have earned 8% commission out of selling a useless, pointless, expensive insurance bond – such as OMI, Generali or RL360 – and up to 10% (or even more) on the underlying investments. On top of this, the scammer – masquerading as an “adviser” – will also charge a 1% “advisory” fee. And probably a setup fee. And then there are the QROPS charges.

Henry Tapper wrote an excellent blog on this very subject – he called it FRACTIONAL SCAMMING. I do hope that all offshore advisory firms will read this carefully. The excuse that they didn’t really understand the impact of hidden charges and commissions – and were only copying what they thought the industry was already doing successfully – is simply not going to wash any more. The damage caused by this toxic practice has been widely published and exposed.

The only way forward is to go fee-based. And to outlaw commissions and hidden charges altogether. The scammers won’t do it – but decent, ethical firms will. The hard part will be to warn expats against vultures. Ethical firms will help with this initiative. Obviously, the scammers won’t.

January 21, 2019
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.

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.

Worrying 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.

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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!

Know 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.

How 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

January 7, 2019
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!

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.

A 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!

January 2, 2019
Where’s my pension?

Henry Tapper has published an interesting article about the problem of the number of lost pensions. We live in an age where careers are much more fluid and many people move companies or retrain and change professions. This mean many people may have had five or six different jobs (if not more) throughout their working career. Keeping track and actually remembering who all their employers were is difficult, let alone remembering who the ceding provider of their pension was 30 years ago. Where’s my pension? is now a frequently asked question.

Henry writes:

‘According to the Pension Policy Institute , there is £20,000,000,000 of other people’s money swilling about in pension trusts, in the troughs of life insurance companies or “managed” in “self-invested” personal pensions.’

That is a huge amount of money that has been worked hard for and is to get someone through their later years. So how can we answer the question: Where’s my pension?

Well apparently, according to Henry’s intelligence, the DWP were going to do something about this situation back in March. However, – and really not that surprisingly – it’s now December and nothing has been done!

The DWP had proposed a pensions ‘dashboard’, a go-to for people who were stuck with the unanswered question of ‘Where’s my pension?’ But we are still waiting for this to be completed and explained.

Currently, you can use professional pension finding services like Origo or Experian to find your missing pension(s), although this is lengthy and not free of charge. Henry and the Sun newspaper have kindly put together this DIY dashboard pension finding advice.

So, in answer to the question: ‘Where is my pension?’ it is probably wise to DIY your pension dashboard. If you wait for the DWP you may be cold in the ground before their proposals are actually met! Meaning they get your money! No surprise, then, that they are being slow with their proposals.

We also need to remember that scammers are lurking in the undergrowth, so will this be the next scam tactic?

Stuck on the question, “Where’s my pension??” Never fear. We can help. Free pensions finding service and review.’

When it comes to finance, nothing in life comes for free. These free pension reviews are often followed by high commissions and even toxic, high-risk investments. Leaving you worse off than you were when you were stuck with the ‘Where’s my pension?’ question.

If you want help with your pension, make sure you use a fully qualified and reputable firm. Ensure you know ALL of the fees and costs that will be applied to your pension transfer, the day it happens as well as annually. Make sure you know the right questions to ask your adviser.

If in doubt, walk away. Safeguard your pension from the pension scammers.

Trolley’s Pension Scam Guide

December 6, 2018
Transparency Failure With Flying Colours
The financial services industry has failed with flying colours to achieve transparency – both offshore and in the UK. The single most important thing about any product or service is transparency – aka honesty. This is where the profession has tolerated – and even encouraged – bare-faced lying for years and continues to do so today.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with overcharging – as long as the overcharger makes it clear he is openly trying to rip his customers off and the victim is consciously happy to be ripped off. Personally, I’d love to be able to sell my car for 25,000 EUR – but with its age, condition and mileage I know I’d struggle to get 5,000. However, a crafty, clever person could give it a makeover, a clockover, tell a few convincing porky pies – and some poor fool might pay over the odds for it.

Most of the victims I deal with tell me the same story:
- the adviser said the “review” would be free
- the adviser said the only charge I would pay would be 1.5% a year
- the adviser said my fund would grow at 8% a year net of charges
- the adviser never told me about the insurance bond
- the adviser never told me he was going to invest my funds in high-risk, illiquid funds or structured notes
Most people describe their offshore adviser as being about as transparent as a pork chop and the “flying colours” of their achievements to be fifty shades of brown.

Champion campaigner against this sort of dishonesty is international king of transparency Andy Agathangelou – Founding Chair of the Transparency Task Force, the collaborative, campaigning community dedicated to driving up levels of transparency in financial services around the world. Andy writes for Investment Week and calls for total transparency from offshore advisory firms.

One of Andy’s key statements is: “the financial services industry as a whole has a moral, ethical and professional duty to behave transparently”. But I wonder if that is a bit like asking for World peace, an end to pollution, a cure for cancer or a reversal of global warming (and a solution to the Brexit problem).

In the UK, advisers are not allowed to charge commissions on the products they sell, meaning that they will (hopefully) choose the best investment for their client – as there is no financial incentive to chose one product over another. However, offshore advisers do not have these restrictions, meaning that when they are selling an investment they will inevitably choose the one that pays the most commission.

But are things really that squeaky clean in the UK? Does the “beady” eye of the FCA have any effect or is it merely a masking mechanism to cloak lack of transparency (aka lying) in a thin veneer of false security? Henry Tapper’s recent blog on the subject of the FCA’s investigation into 34 firms suspected of non-disclosure of investment charges reports:

34 firms under investigation by FCA for non-disclosure of investment charges

and quotes SCM Direct as saying “Its time for the chief executive of the FCA, Andrew Bailey, to demonstrate that he is willing to be the industry enforcer rather than the industry lapdog.”

One example was cited: Canaccord Genuity claimed its annual management fee was 1.25% plus a transaction commission of £30. But it turned out the 1.25% was just the beginning – then there were VAT and fund charges bringing the true cost nearer to 2.75%. Now, I know we women sometimes stretch the truth when it comes to our age, weight or clothes size – but Canaccord’s porky pie was that the real charges were actually twice what was claimed. That’s not just lack of transparency – that is naked dishonesty.

I had a browse through Canaccord’s funds and got bewildered by the range of costs – the annual charges seemed to range from 2.1% up to a whopping 4.34%. I’m just wondering whether an investor prepared to pay 4.34% for one of these funds might like to buy my car as well? After all, if they can throw their money away so easily, they surely can’t be bright enough to realise my rusty old heap isn’t worth 25k.

While I was in a browsing mood, I thought I’d have a wee look at Flying Colours. The company aims to provide super low-cost advice and investment funds and “negate the hidden costs in the market”. The website claims “I’m building a network of independent financial advisers with a shared vision – to improve the returns of UK investors. Join us.” But now I’ve got alarm bells ringing: a network? And who exactly is in the network?

A list of firms scattered across England from Bristol and Godalming to Liverpool and Skelmersdale – plus a few one-man bands. But they all claim to be “independent” financial advisers. How can they be independent if they are tied agents of Flying Colours? We are back to the “Wild West” offshore culture where members of a network are effectively “feral” and get up to all sorts of mischief due to lack of independence. And let us not forget that tied agents are illegal in Spain – and for good reason because the Spanish government knows that advisers simply cannot be independent if they are tied to one provider.

The Flying Colours network includes All Things Financial, Arch Financial Planning, CBG Financial Planning, Cullen Wealth Management, E-Crunch, Fit Financial Services, JAV Financial Planning, JBD Financial Planning, JRF Financial Planning, Lavelle Financial Services, Layfield Wealth Management, Mathew Burrows Financial Planning, NTW Financial Planning, Pepperells Wealth, S Fox Wealth Management, Sterling Financial Planning, The Royall Wealth Partnership and Tyrone Peters Financial Planning.

But how on earth does a coherent and effective compliance function work with 18 different firms scattered all across the country? (All of which are lying about their independence).

The Flying Colours website boasts: “We’re transparent about the charges you’ll pay for advice and investments. And there’ll be no hidden fees, ever.” But where are the fees and charges? I searched the whole website but couldn’t find out what they were. Because they were hidden.

Flying Colours recently made an ill-fated, abortive attempt to enter the offshore market (leaving considerable embarrassment and expense in its wake). Far from the claim of “starting strong relationships with a cultural fit and starting friendships“, Flying Colours ended up dumping the failure and retreating to UK-based “DIY” advice. Once Flying Colours’ offshore mess is cleared up, there will – no doubt – be a sigh of relief since Flying Colours was actually offering a more expensive version of the “cheap” investment advice process at 2% for investors with complex investments (so back to the same old, same old offshore “sophisticated” confidence trick).

What is there in Britain to protect consumers from lies; scams; lack of independence and transparency; weak compliance and unworkable investment offerings? Forget the FCA – they are permanently on a coffee break.

But what about the Insolvency Service? Isn’t that there to help protect victims from investment scams? More than a year ago, the IS commenced winding up proceedings against Store First for selling store pods to rogue SIPPS providers such as Berkeley Burke, Carey Pensions, Rowanmoor Pensions, London & Colonial and Stadia Trustees. So, we have thousands of victims of pension and investment fraud all left hanging – not knowing whether their investments are worthless or not. And this, of course, includes the Capita Oak and Henley scheme victims.

The lack of transparency about the store pods was, arguably, not the fault of Store First itself, but caused by the lies of the rogue promoters and “advisers” and the negligence of the SIPPS providers. A store pod is a great investment if the investor has a burning desire to invest in an illiquid, speculative asset – with the added benefit that he can also put his granny’s knick-knacks in there free of charge. While any honest adviser would have told the investors to invest their life savings in a low-cost, liquid, prudent fund – and any competent pension trustee or administrator would have refused to accept store pods as pension investments – the fact is that the backhanders set aside any common sense entirely.

Personally, I think the UK has a long way to go before it can claim to be entirely transparent. To get there, some sort of regulator would be helpful (forget the FCA – obviously) and an effective insolvency service would contribute to achieving meaningful reform. But while firms are still lying, obfuscating and cheating, we can’t really say that pension and investment scams only happen offshore. They are still very much on our doorstep.

Andy Agathangelou’s important work addresses many of the ills which blight offshore financial services. But he could do with a team of several hundred helpers to cover all the key expat jurisdictions. Offshore advisers – as well as UK-based firms – need to be 100% committed to their clients and take into consideration the future of the investments they make. They need to give their clients total transparency, not just on the commissions that will be applied but also on all other fees and charges.

Total transparency on all fees and commissions, before any transfers are made, would mean investors know exactly what they are getting into. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, is needed from day one! But it would also be exceedingly helpful if ALL UK-based advisers and fund managers adhered to this model.

Going back to Canaccord Genuity’s opacity in the case of a client with a £700k portfolio, their non-disclosure of the VAT charges alone led to an additional cost of £10,500. £10,500 over 10 years amounts to £105,000 – quite a sizable chunk of the fund. You would have to have some very good investments to cover these costs AND increase the amount of the fund. Which, of course, is (or ought to be) the main aim of an investment!

Just for a laugh, have a look on Canaccord´s website at their list of fees, in particular, their cautious fund. 4.34% a year in charges. I wondered if this included VAT (being a “cautious” investor!).

So I decided I´d give them a call, just to clear up the confusion.

I was passed around various departments and ended up talking to a woman, who was – to put it plainly – pretty unhelpful. I asked about the charges and was told I would need to talk to a fund manager. I was asked how much I wanted to invest. I replied I´d need more information before I could commit to an amount. I was told there was a minimum investment of £250,00, but she still couldn´t tell me about the fees and charges.

I was put on hold, after she implied she might find out the answers to my questions. However, she must have forgotten me as no one came back and I was simply left hanging – listening to the sound of silence. Hopefully, Canaccord won’t forget me in the future.

Mind you, I didn’t have much luck with Flying Colours either. I chatted to their online “can I help you?” chap, Stephen Murphy, and asked him what the fund and advisory charges were. Murphy wanted to know why I wanted to know. I explained I was writing an article on Flying Colours’ fees. His reply was: “In regards to you writing an article around fund charges – we are not interested in featuring in an article as you are based in Spain – however, if you need further information around this you could contact Dani Greenfield on dgreenfield@flyingcolourswealth.com – she deals with the marketing side of our business.” Why so secretive I wonder?

Offshore advisers should be forced to put labels like these on their investments!

All this leaves us with a number of pressing, unanswered questions:
- Is it acceptable that the financial services industry has failed with flying colours?
- Is it tolerable that in some ways it is as bad in the UK as it is offshore?
- Should consumers continue to tolerate unacceptably high charges from providers?
- Would anybody like to buy my car for 25,000 EUR?
October 14, 2018
Unqualified pension scammers banned

Unqualified Pension Scammers Banned

Articles like New Model Adviser’s report on some of the scammers behind the Capita Oak/Henley/Store First scam getting banned always makes me smile. Knowing that a few pension scammers (four in this case), are being named and shamed – as well as banned from being directors – motivates me to share information about these evil scams with the public.

Directors handed 34-year ban for £57m cold call pension transfers

Citywire stated:

“An investigation led by the Insolvency Service revealed the directors were connected with Transeuro Worldwide Holdings, which helped fund two introducer firms Sycamore Crown and Jackson Francis. The firms were involved in the transfer of £57 million of pension savings.

Sycamore Crown director Stuart Greehan agreed to a nine-year voluntary ban as a result of false and misleading statements to encourage investors to transfer their pensions.

Karl Dunlop, director of Imperial Trustee Services, and Ian Dunsford, director of Omni Trustees, agreed to bans of nine and seven years, respectively, for failing to act in the best interests of members and ‘failing to ensure investments were adequately diverse’.

While not a formally appointed director of Transeuro Worldwide Holdings, Mike Talbot (AKA Stephen Talbot) accepted a nine-year disqualification undertaking for failing to disclose what happened to the millions of pounds of pension assets.”

BUT, IN ADDITION TO THESE EVIL SCAMMERS, THERE WERE OTHER PLAYERS IN THIS APPALLING TRAGEDY AND THEY WERE NOT MENTIONED. SO HERE ARE THE OTHER PEOPLE WHO PLAYED LEADING PARTS IN THIS FOUL PLAY:

Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions SL and Premier Pension Transfers Ltd – he handled the transfer administration from the original (ceding) pension providers. He was, apparently, paid £300 per Capita Oak transfer – and would have known that he was condemning each member to certain loss of his or her pension.

XXXX XXXX of Nationwide Benefit Consultants, The Pension Reporter, Victory Asset Management and Tourbillon, was clearly the “controlling mind” behind Capita Oak. He also ran the Thurlstone loan scheme which paid 5% in cash to the Capita Oak victims as a “bonus” or “thank you”. HMRC is now taxing these payments at 55% as they qualify as unauthorised payments. XXXX XXXX then went on to launch the successful Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund scam which saw over 400 victims lose their pensions to high-risk toxic loans to Dolphin Trust in an STM Fidecs Gibraltar QROPS. XXXX – as with most pension scammers – subsequently ignores the plight of the victims when the schemes eventually and inevitably collapse. XXXX is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office and was also responsible for the Westminster pension scam.

Mark Manley of Manleys Solicitors – acting for XXXX XXXX.

Stuart Chapman-Clarke, Christopher Payne, Ben Fox, Bill Perkins, Alan Fowler, Karen Burton, Tom Biggar, Sarah Duffell, Jason Holmes, Metis Law Solicitors, Roger Chant, Brian Downs, Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh all played further prominent roles in this series of scams and profited to a greater or lesser degree.

It is believed that cold calling techniques were used to lure unsuspecting victims into this series of unregulated investment scams. Victims’ pension savings were transferred into bogus occupational pension schemes whose trustees/administrators were Omni Trustees and Imperial Trustee Services. The schemes were Henley Retirement Benefit Scheme (HRBS) and Capita Oak Pension Scheme (COPS). But the scammers also used a variety of SIPPS which included Berkeley Burke, Careys Pensions, Rowanmoor, London and Colonial and Stadia Trustees.

As is often the case in scams like these, the victims were lured in with promises of so-called guaranteed high returns by spivs masquerading as advisers, who were also unqualified and unregulated to give financial advice.

The unqualified advisers were able to transfer millions of pounds’ worth of pension savings into these schemes which included investments in unregulated storage units and over £10 million into COPS (Capita Oak) and over £8 million into HRBS (Henley). The promised high returns were never paid to the investors – but handed over to the scammers instead. The pension funds are now suspended with the funds trapped in these illiquid investments.

The company directors have received a total ban of 34 years collectively. Here at Pension Life we would have liked to have seen lifetime bans all round.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is now moving forward with their investigations against Omni and Imperial. They urge people who are members of HRBS (Henley) and COPS (Capita Oak) to contribute to criminal evidence against the scammers via a questionnaire.

As always, the team at Pension Life urges pension holders to be wary of pension scammers. Never accept a cold call offer, be aware that scammers lurk everywhere and if it seems to good to be true it probably is!

If in doubt just walk away!

October 10, 2018