Tag: PENSIONS REGULATOR

Blacktower Spain – Qualified and Registered?

Can Blacktower Spain fare any better than other companies we have looked into? How many of their advisers will come out qualified and registered?

If you have been following Pension Life´s blogs you will know that we have been conducting a series of investigations into qualified and registered financial advisers in various firms. Today is Blacktower Spain – qualified and registered?

IFAs and their clients are invited to add to it, correct it, improve it. Here’s a link to the two registers if you want to double check:

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

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

Please note that this data is correct as of 9am 25/06/2018

edit: we have been informed that there is a third website we can check for qualifications, so this page is in the process of editing whilst we see if any names appear on the libf members website. 02/07/2018

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

Blacktower has several offices in Spain – so let’s see which one is the best.

Blacktower Spain – Barcelona

Andy Clelland – International Financial Adviser – not on either CII OR CISI register despite a long list of qualifications – not on libf.ac.uk

Francisco Mahfuz – Regional Manager Barcelona – Claims CII and CISI but does NOT appear on either register – not on libf.ac.uk

David Marks – International Financial Adviser – Claims CII – a Mr David Alan Marks DipPFS appears on the CII register. Also Claims CISI but not on the register – not on libf.ac.uk

Bernhard Rufli – International Financial Adviser – again a long list of qualifications claimed but alas NOT ON EITHER CII OR CISI REGISTER!– not on libf.ac.uk

Glenn Stroud – International Financial Adviser – CII registered – not on libf.ac.uk

Barcelona 1 out of 5!

No extra points using the libf register

*************************************

Black Tower Spain – Costa Calida

Keith Littlewood – Regional Manager – Claims a good list of qualifications – does not appear on either register – not on libf.ac.uk

Paul Price – International Financial Adviser – A Paul Anthony Price DipPFS does appear on the CII register – but it says he is based in Chelmsford – not on libf.ac.uk

A possible 1 out of 2 – but only possibly!

No extra points using the libf register

************************************

Blacktower Spain Costa Del Sol

Kenneth Baek – International Financial Adviser – Not on either register – not on libf.ac.uk

Richard Black – International Financial Adviser – claims the title FPC – but does not appear on any register – not on libf.ac.uk

Tim Govaerts – Associate Director – States he IS a CII member but he ISN´T registered

Patrick Macdonald – International Financial Adviser – claims to be a member of both – DOES NOT appear on either register – not on libf.ac.uk EDIT: Patrick Macdonald is now listed on the CISI membership website.

Richard Mills – International Financial Adviser – claims qualifications in CII and CISI – but does not appear on either register – not on libf.ac.uk

Jose Olabarrieta – International Financial Adviser – Not on either register – not on libf.ac.uk

Chris Pickering – International Financial Adviser – He states he is CISI qualified but he IS NOT on the register – not on libf.ac.uk

Craig Webb – International Financial Adviser – No claim to qualifications and not on either register – not on libf.ac.uk

Ian Scholes – International Financial Adviser – Lists that he is CII and he IS CII registered – not on libf.ac.uk

Quentin Sellar – International Financial Adviser – Boast a whole host of qualifications and he IS on the CII register – not on libf.ac.uk

Well done Sellar and Scholes

2 out of 10 for the Costa Del Sol!

No extra points using the libf register

************************************

Blacktower Spain Costa Blanca

Christina Brady – Associate Director – Claims two qualifications in CISI but does not appear on the register – not on libf.ac.uk

Wayne Martin – International Financial Adviser – Claims to be a member of both CII and CISI but only appears on the CII register – not on libf.ac.uk

Dave Diggle – International Financial Adviser – states his expertise is QROPS but he doesn´t appear on either register – not on libf.ac.uk

Richard Samuels – International Financial Adviser – his areas of expertise are Pension Planning/Transfers but he IS NOT on either register – not on libf.ac.uk

Graham Dixon – International Financial Adviser – IS CII registered! – not on libf.ac.uk

Andrew Gibson DipIP – International Financial Adviser – IS CII registered! – not on libf.ac.uk

2 out of 6 for the Costa Blanca team!

No extra points using the libf register

************************************

Gibraltar Head office

John Westwood – Group Managing Director – IS CII registered

Robert Mancera – Director and General Manager – IS CII registered

Ally Kerr – Group Director – Claims CII but DOES NOT appear on the register

Patricia Risso – Non-Executive Director – No claims and not listed on either register

Paul Rhodes – Associate Director – a Mr Paul John Rhodes Lakin ACII is listed on the CII register – could this be him?

Paul Howard – International Financial Adviser – Many Paul Howards are listed on the CII register – let’s hope one of them is him!

2 out of 6 definitely with a possible 4 out of 6 – not bad Gibraltar! You definitely come out as top office of Blacktower Spain – qualified and registered?

No extra points using the libf register

************************************

edit: despite the libf register NONE of the Blacktower Spain team appear on it, this means the original score sticks.

7 out of 29 qualified and registered in the Blacktower Spain office – 75% unqualified and unregistered!

Pretty poor result Blacktower.

June 25, 2018
10 essential questions to ask an IFA
Most victims of pension and investment scams bitterly regret not having asked more questions with regards to their financial planning. The problem is that they wouldn’t have known what questions to ask, and they probably wouldn’t have understood the answers even if they had. Pension Life offer you 10 essential questions to ask an IFA so you can ensure you are not the next victim.

All existing victims wish they had asked questions, obtained assurances, checked advisers’ qualifications and regulation. But, of course, it is now too late for the victims who have lost part or all of their life savings.

These victims all agree that it is important to prevent future victims. This is why we have come up with these 10 essential questions to ask an IFA, when considering financial planning and the transfer of your pension:

1 – How is the adviser and/or his firm licensed to provide advice to you in the jurisdiction where you – the client – live? Don’t be fobbed off with the answer that the adviser has an insurance license – that isn’t enough. The adviser needs an investment license. Also, don’t be fobbed off if the adviser says the firm is licensed in another jurisdiction – it needs to be licensed for where you, the client, live.

2 – If you are transferring a DB (defined benefit) or FS (final salary) scheme, you must get FCA regulated, qualified, independent advice on the merits of the transfer. Remember, the advice might be that you are better off leaving your pension where it is.

3 – Make sure the transfer recommendation (from a DB or FS scheme) is correct. Get a second opinion. You only get to do this once – and if the wrong road is chosen, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to correct it.

Check that the transfer advice report makes it clear that you, the client, are being advised on the transfer and that the advice is about what you should do – not what you could do.

4 – Don’t let the adviser put you into an insurance bond. Examples of these are Old Mutual International, SEB, Generali, Friends Provident, RL360, Hansard, Investors Trust. An insurance bond is a wrapper. A QROPS is a wrapper. You don’t need two wrappers. That’s like Superman wearing two pairs of pants over his tights.

The only purpose an insurance bond serves is to pay the IFA 8% commission. Plus, the insurance bond will tie you in for between five and ten years, and you neither need nor want to do that with a pension.

Insurance companies will take business from any old unlicensed, unqualified scammers. They don’t care. The quarterly charges are called “management charges” but that is very misleading because they don’t do any actual managing. Once the value of your fund starts to diminish because of the high charges and the toxic, illiquid, high-risk investments, the insurance company will keep taking its fees – sometimes until the whole fund is extinguished and worthless.

5 – What qualifications does the adviser have?

You wouldn’t take medical advice from an unqualified person posing as a doctor; legal advice from an unqualified person posing as a solicitor or accountancy advice from a person posing as an accountant. So why take financial adviser from someone with no qualifications?

It is a sad fact that in many jurisdictions, so-called advisers spring up with no qualifications and even no Financial Panning experience. Sometimes, they had been selling mortgages, second-hand cars or ice cream the previous week to selling pensions.

Pension Life covered the question of qualifications in a recent blog by Kim:

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.
6 – Is the adviser planning on investing your life savings in professional-investor-only structured notes?

Structured notes are complex, risky, expensive derivatives which are only suitable for sophisticated investors who understand them. Few advisers/brokers understand them – but love them because of the very high commissions they pay. They also love them because once they have purchased them, there is no management to do – only stand back and watch them plummet in value.

Examples of structured note providers are Leonteq (currently being sued by Old Mutual International for fraud), Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada and Nomura. There are, of course, many more out there.

However, if your adviser/broker says he wants to invest part of your life savings in structured notes – ignore any old baloney about “capital protection” – and RUN LIKE HELL!

7 – Why are the firm’s own in-house funds used? An adviser can’t be independent if he is recommending his own firm’s own funds.

The way that financial advice is supposed to work is the adviser does a thorough, detailed fact find to analyse the client’s individual circumstances and risk profile. Then the adviser can go out into the market and find the most suitable and cost-effective investment products.

There is a huge choice and many good low-cost investment platforms. But some firms set up their “own” funds – which are merely somebody else’s fund which has been “white labelled” as the firm’s fund. This means there are two layers of charges.

An adviser cannot be independent if he is advising that his own fund should be the investment choice. This recommendation is usually made because of the extra commission which can be earned from an in-house fund, rather than because it is in the client’s best interests.

8 – Are UCIS funds going to be used?

Many a poor victim has lived to regret his trust and faith in a silver-tongued adviser’s ability to manage his investments. UCIS funds (Unregulated, collective investment schemes) are inevitably high risk and can have catastrophic results.

Such funds include EEA Life Settlements, LM, Harlequin, Brandeaux Student Accommodation, Premier New Earth Recycling, Dolphin Trust and many more which are sometimes no more than Ponzi schemes. Underlying assets include forestry, “clean” energy, eucalyptus and truffle-tree plantations, chia seeds, fine art, wines and speculative property.

Life savings have been decimated by failed UCIS funds – make sure your adviser/broker understands you don’t want your money to be invested in any of these toxic, high-risk, unregulated funds. You could well be promised high returns, but you have to remember that with high returns comes high risk.

9 – What is the full extent of the charges/fees/commissions on the entire transaction?

So many advisers conceal the full extent of ALL the fees and commissions. Victims only find out about them long after it is way too late. The “drag” on a fund can be catastrophic, even without investment losses.

If you are being advised to go into a QROPS, there will be the set-up and yearly ongoing charge (as well as exit charge); the adviser will charge between 2% and 3% set-up and then 1% (at least) annually; if UCIS funds are used, these can pay up to 25% commission (or even more sometimes); if structured notes are used, these can pay between 6% (for the regular ones) and 8% (for the fraudulent Leonteq ones). Then there is the 8% on the insurance bond. Then there is anything else the adviser can slip in without you noticing.

Victims of poor advice often only notice the dragging effect of all these charges on their fund after a year or so – or more. And by then it is too late, and the fund can never recover.

10 – Why were you graded as a “7” balanced investor – or even higher as an “adventurous” investor (when, clearly, you should have been graded as a low-risk investor)?

Here is the basic problem – the higher an investor’s risk profile is, the riskier the investments can be. This, of course, means that the riskier the investments are, the more commission the adviser can make.

After suffering crippling losses, many victims (retrospectively) look at their statements and documentation and find that they were graded as medium or high risk without their knowledge or consent. The adviser’s excuse is that the client valued growth above all else and that this was reflected in the risk assessment questionnaire.

Often, clients start off as low to medium risk, and then the adviser surreptitiously increases the risk profile. This can have catastrophic consequences for investors – and is what ALL of the known victims report as being the cause of their crippling losses.

The bottom line is that the public needs to be educated and warned about the bad practices offshore. Only by spreading the word about what happened to existing victims, will future victims be prevented.

People who have lost part – or all – of their pensions and life savings, are devastated and destroyed. They are facing potential poverty in retirement. Some will lose their homes, their health and their relationships. Some will take their own lives.
June 25, 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.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up to date on new Pension Life videos.

(more…)

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.

**************************************************************

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.”

*****************************************

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.

*****************************

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
Fractional scamming – The trending pension scam

Having read Henry Tapper’s A Master Class in Fractional Scamming, here at Pension Life we feel we should share some facts with our readers about the “trending” investment and pension scam of 2018 – fractional scamming.

First of all here´s a bit about the fractional scam:

Today with new regulations, pension liberation has pretty much gone out of the window. Instead, victims are being offered to transfer their pension fund into a “new” scheme and invest in funds with promises of high returns and low risks. What is hidden in the small print is that whilst there MIGHT be high returns (possibly, if the wind is blowing in the right direction for long enough), the fund has to work its way through the hands of many parasitic introducers and advisers – each one taking their own fraction of the fund.

Henry Tapper uses a Pizza as a great example. Say you ordered a pizza which has been cut into eight slices. On its way to you, the pizza goes past 6 people, and each one takes a slice. Therefore 3/4 of the pizza has already been eaten by the time it gets to you. That does not leave much for you, the person whose pizza it was supposed to be.

This is what is happening to pension funds subjected to fractional scamming, they are being passed from one adviser to another and each one takes their slice.

So whilst the pension fund may well be going into a high-return investment, (when they finally arrive there), the fund has to recover from the percentage slices taken before any profit can be made. Using the pizza as an example, 75% of it was eaten before it arrived at its promised destination. 75% is a pretty high figure – even if the investment interest is 6.5%/7.5% – it is going to take another lifetime to get it back to its original value. Something the victims of fractional scamming don´t have.

The trending pension scam, fractional scamming – this image shows how the scammers skim their slice of the victims’ pension fund in this new wave of pension scam. Chip, chip, chipping away until the original pot is but a fragment of its original state.

What is most frustrating about the situation is that many of the people benefiting from the fractional scam are unregulated advisers. They are the unauthorised introducers who work with unauthorised – as well as authorised – IFAS who worked with Pension Trustees to transfer money into overseas funds. Each one taking their fraction of the fund.

$Pension Life blog - Fractional Scamming - The trending pension scam - don´t let your pension pot fall victim to fractional scamming$

Ways to avoid falling victim to fractional scamming are to ensure that the adviser you are proposing to use is fully authorised by the FCA in the UK. Or by the appropriate regulator in whichever jurisdiction you are resident. Do your own due diligence to ensure that you know all the facts about the transfer of your pension fund. What are the fees – as in ALL THE FEES – relating to the transfer; where will the fund be going and what exactly will it be invested in.

If you are cold called – HANG UP IMMEDIATELY

Do the adviser’s promises sound too good to be true? IF THEY DO, THEY PROBABLY ARE

High return/low risk investment – NO SUCH THING

The illustration on the left is based on the Continental Wealth Management scam which saw nearly 1,000 people have around £100 million worth of retirement savings put at risk. The first year would have cost the victim at least 16% of the fund, and thereafter around 8% a year. So it never had any chance of growing – while the “advisers”, bond provider and structured note providers got fat and rich.

**************************************************************

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. To find out how to avoid being scammed, please see our blog:

What is a pension scam?

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

April 19, 2018
Holborn Assets Johannesburg – Damaging more life savings?

EXCLUSIVE: Holborn Assets opens new office in South Africa. Oh, how wonderful for them! However, not so wonderful for the new victims Holborn will obviously be trying to scam into losing large percentages of their pension funds.

None of the existing victims have received compensation yet for their crippling losses due to expensive insurance bonds, high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes, and even higher-risk UCIS funds such as New Earth Recycling. And yet Holborn Assets appear to have plenty of spare cash to open a new office in Johannesburg. This new venture will be led by Lourens Reichert and will apparently employ an eight-strong team of advisers. Seems Holborn Assets is now set to exploit this new market and will, of course, have no trouble finding plenty of new victims and relieving them of their pension savings.

Bob Parker, Holborn Assets’ CEO and founder, said: “South Africa is full of potential. There’s an enormous amount of capital held by residents outside of the country and Lourens and his team are experts in advising clients on how to manage that for maximum growth and efficiency.”

You can almost hear Bob Parker smacking his lips and rubbing his hands with glee as he is already counting the enormous amount of money he is going to make out of scamming more victims.

If you are new to Holborn Assets here is a bit of background information on them. The outfit is based in various locations including Dubai, Saudi and Kuala Lumpur, as well as the UK and run by various Parkers: Simon, Bob, James etc. They have used mass cold-calling techniques to lure in victims and place their pension funds into high-risk, toxic investments – that pay maximum commissions.

Holborn Assets’ past victims have seen heavy losses to their pensions due to negligent, unregulated, unqualified advice into entirely inappropriate, high-risk, illiquid assets. This includes one victim’s $600k life savings – half of which were invested in New Earth Recycling (which, of course, was paying the best investment introduction commissions at the time).

Not only is Holborn Assets in the habit of destroying pension funds, the firm also has no shame in who they stick on their payroll. Take Paul Reynolds, who was banned by the FCA and fined nearly £300,000 for giving unsuitable and misleading financial advice, yet Bob Parker of Holborn Assets Dubai welcomed him with open arms. Holborn Assets also employed Darin Brownlee-Jones: the “Champagne Killer“. A drunk hit-and-run driver who killed an innocent man then walked away to drink champagne.

Bob Parker is clearly a man whose conscience bothers him not one bit after failing to compensate victims. He has the astonishing audacity to have his own page on his website to warn people about scammers!

And now Holborn Assets has employed Lourens Reichert, to be the face of Holborn Assets Johannesburg. Reichert has reportedly said “Holborn has a great reputation for its integrity, professionalism and for supporting its staff and investing in them and the business. It is also going in a really exciting direction and it’s great to join the company when it is on such a growth track.”

He obviously hasn’t done much research on the company he now works for and represents. Or did the whopping “golden handshake” he received from Bob Parker make him turn a blind eye to the grubby goings on inside Holborn Assets?

Reichert has apparently stated:

“Coming to Holborn gives my team and I the opportunity to grow the business even further. The first priority will be within South Africa and then we will explore the many opportunities that exist for providing specialist advice across the African continent.”

But Reichert has said nothing of repairing the damage done to so many victims and Holborn Assets’ failure to compensate them. Is Reichert really so blind? Or is he just greedy, selfish and heartless – willing to go on and do to more victims what Holborn Assets has already done to so many?

All that’s left to say then is “Look out South Africa!” If any South African residents get cold called by Reichert and his merry men, just tell them to hop it.

**************************************************************

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. To find out how to avoid being scammed, please see our blog:

What is a pension scam?

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

April 18, 2018
Victory for SIPPS Pension Scam Victims

A happy tale for the end of the week… not just one but two firms have been told they must compensate clients for poor advice on SIPPS transfers. A great victory against all firms using SIPPS to disguise their ill-advised pension scams sorry schemes.

Financial Planning today reported that:

The Financial Ombudsman Service has ruled against Portafina and Greystone Financial Services in two recent separate cases.

In both instances the clients were advised to invest in unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS). These schemes are generally high risk and unsuitable for retail investments such as pension fund SIPPS. Both victims have suffered severe financial loss due to the UCIS their funds were invested in.

Mr P invested sums from his SIPP of £50,000 and two more of £20,000 into various funds before 2007 on the advice of Greystone. In May 2007 Greystone advised Mr P to invest £25,000 of his SIPP funds in the Rock Industrial UK Property fund and to also invest £25,000 in the Phoenix Spree Deutschland fund.

Mr P at 51 should have been a low risk investor, however he was encouraged to invest a high percentage of his SIPPS into the commercial property market. Greystone argued that the loss was not caused by the advice but by the unprecedented fall in the commercial property market.

The FOS told the firm it must put Mr P into the position he would probably now be in – or as closely as possible – if he had been given suitable advice.

With this case and many others now coming to prosecution, there is hope that there will be a reduction in firms advising their clients to invest in unregulated high-risk investments. In this case there is no mention of the ´fees´the firms applied to the investments they made, however it is safe to assume they would have applied a nice percentage to each investment, ensuring their pockets were well lined whilst the victim´s funds end with severe losses.

**************************************************************

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. To find out how to avoid being scammed, please see our blog:

What is a pension scam?

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

April 13, 2018
British Steelworker – SIPPS Pension Scam Victim

I am saddened to write about the first (but probably not the last) British Steelworker who has fallen victim to an investment scam as well as a pension scam. The British Steelworker was persuaded to transfer his DB pension AND invest £35,000 of his personal saving into an unregulated fund – Dolphin Trust (in Germany).

More and more, we are seeing innocent, hardworking individuals falling victim to pension scams due to their pension funds being invested in unregulated, high-risk, illiquid investments. It is just a matter of time before these unsuitable investments leave victims’ pension funds in tatters.

Mike Pickett, a British Steelworkers, had his savings loaned to an unregulated German property development company called Dolphin Trust. This was courtesy of (now collapsed) IFA firm Active Wealth. Mike not only transferred his pension fund, but also his life savings. His pension funds went into a SIPPS which then found their way to Gallium Fund Solutions.

Mike’s non-pension savings then went through Active Wealth into Dolphin Trust GmbH, which specialises in the development of German-listed buildings and promises 10% returns on investment. He says he was unaware that he was signed up to a fixed term payment (minimum 2 years) and of the associated 5% exit penalty to withdraw money from Gallium early.

Dolphin Trust IS NOT regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The way victims were lured into this scheme is more than a little questionable. It is also somewhat confusing as to who was actually responsible for investing Mike’s funds. Much little like an traditional fable, the storyline seems to shift to ensure the blame can be passed where necessary.

It all started with a presentation made to British Steel Workers via Celtic Wealth. How on earth are these people were able to make a presentation to innocent victims-to-be for an UNREGULATED investment is beyond me. Especially when Celtic Wealth was not authorised to provide investment advice.

And here’s where Active Wealth came in. Celtic Wealth claimed “All regulated advice in relation to pensions and investments is given by Active Wealth (UK) Ltd.”

After the presentation by Celtic Wealth, Mike Pickett claims to have spoken to Active Wealth adviser Andrew Deeney, and says he was visited at his home shortly thereafter by Deeney and a representative of Celtic Wealth. He had three meetings with Active Wealth in total – two of which he said were with Deeney.

Active Wealth has now surrendered its pension transfer permissions following FCA action in relation to advice given to steelworkers. Andrew Deeney, now sole director and shareholder of regulated IFA firm Fidelis Wealth Management, claims he has no relation to these investments.

No one wants to take the blame for these mis-sold investments. Yet all involved would have contributed to the demise of the pension funds – and earned fees and commissions along the way.

Transfers into self-invested personal pensions (SIPPS) dominated the pension transfer market in 2017, accounting for 51 percent of all transfers. It is worrying to consider what percentage of that figure is being transferred into unregulated, toxic investments.

The problem with pension scammers is that they are very good at disguising themselves. They wear smart clothes, they are friendly, knowledgeable and very very persuasive. They have a series of different scams disguised as a great investment – when one collapses they move onto another, just as Andrew Deeney has and the infamous Stephen Ward.

The first way of avoiding a possible scam is to reject all cold calling.

Never take a ‘free’ review on your pension.

Always check that the advisers and companies are regulated

Make sure you know ALL the facts

Low-risk high return investment – THEY DO NOT EXIST

Too good to be true – it probably is

******************************************

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. To find out how to avoid being scammed, please see our blog:

What is a pension scam?

Follow Pension Life on twitter to keep up with all things pension related, good and bad.

April 12, 2018