Isle of Man or Isle of Scam? After publishing the recent Pension Life blog about fraud operated and facilitated in Malta – it became clear there was an urgent need to shut down the rogue Maltese QROPS trustees. These firms act as the intermediary between the fraudulent secret commissions paid by the Isle of Man […]
ISLE OF MAN – OR ISLE OF SCAM? Read More »
The Post Office scandal is routinely referred to as being the worst betrayal of justice in British history. It is hard to argue that there could be anything worse than what the liars and fraudsters at Post Office Limited and Fujitsu (and their various lawyers) did to hundreds of innocent sub postmasters. But the Life
POST OFFICE V LIFE OFFICE Read More »
For over a decade, life offices (more accurately known as “death” offices) have been the centre of millions of pounds’ worth of destroyed pensions. So here we are going to name the top 3 worst life offices… These are just some of the things they’ve been up to: Collaborating with scammers: unregulated, rogue firms posing
TOP 3 WORST LIFE OFFICES Read More »
Spain is, sadly, the World’s capital of wealth scamming. For more than a decade, wealth planning has been perverted and converted into a commission-laden fraud. This financial crime has relieved thousands of victims of their pensions and life savings. Originally a private Swiss bank, Julius Baer now wants to diversify into the Spanish wealth market.
Fraud in Spain – Julius Baer Read More »
Our last blog in this series recreated the offshore pension scam process. We covered the set up and hard sell. The slick salesman prepared the unwitting victim and convinced him his pension would be better off out of the UK. The silver-tongued spiv, Darren, posing as an adviser, conned his new client with no problem
Pension Scams Explained – Stage 2 Read More »
Every offshore pension scam starts with a “financial advisor”. Or, at least, a slick salesman posing as a financial adviser. This person can also call himself a “wealth consultant” or “senior associate”. After the scammer pretending to be an adviser, the next player is the life office. More accurately described as a “death” office, this
Pension Scams Explained Read More »
Utmost (formerly Generali) is proposing buying Quilter (formerly Old Mutual). The deal is due to be completed by December 2021. The agreed price is nearly half a billion pounds. It is reported that Margrethe Vestager, Vice President of the European Commission, has “approved” this acquisition. The “approval” by the European Commission of this deal is
Utmost Fraud approved by EU Commission Read More »
International Adviser Awards create buzz around Quilter’s, FPI’s and RL360’s facilitation of investment fraud and scams. I am deeply flattered that International Adviser has invited me to enter for this year’s “Best Practice Adviser Awards”. The invitation was sitting – sparkling like a princess – in my inbox this morning. So, how could I refuse?
International Adviser Awards Read More »
RL360’s acquisition of Friends Provident International may be set to ruin even more investors internationally. It will certainly increase competition with Quilter (or Skandia, or Ann Summers or whatever OMI are calling themselves this season). The biggest question – and one which International Adviser’s Kirsten Hastings forgot to ask RL360 David Kneeshaw when she interviewed
RL360 and FPI – ’til death (or poverty) do us part Read More »
The mis-selling of life assurance policies and long-term savings plans has been a regular topic in our blogs. Many victims of pension scams see their funds mis-invested into life assurance policies. These life assurance policies do little more than drain the fund value with their expensive fees and costs. Generali has for years been aggressively
Generali – jumping ship to avoid new regulations? Read More »
The recent PSIG (Pension Scams Industry Group) Scams Survey Pilot 2018 has identified seven “key” findings in their survey. As scam watchers, we are well aware of these points and are, of course, glad they have been highlighted. PSIG’s key finding are set out below. So let us admit one key fact: ALL PENSION SCAMS START WITH A
Time for all pension providers to wake up and stop pension scams Read More »
Every year we are seeing an increase in the number of victims falling for pension and investment scams. Despite warnings in the public domain and a huge array of information about how to avoid falling victim to a scam, it seems the scammers are so skilled at their sales techniques, that even the cleverest of
Cold calling scammers target expats after the ban in UK – BBC4 You and Yours Read More »
Attention financial advisers in Spain/who provide financial advice to Spanish residents. 18th February 2019 DEATH OF THE LIFE BOND: The Spanish insurance and pensions regulator, the DGS, made a judgment against Costa Blanca-based Continental Wealth Management (CWM) on 10.1.2019. The order (translated and summarised below) confirmed that there are strict regulations in Spain for
Death of the Life Bond (Life of the Death Bond?) Read More »
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
No more bogus life assurance policies in Spain Read More »
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
Pension scammers must be stopped Read More »
Written by Kim All pension and investment scams have one thing in common: if the pension scam victims had asked the offshore advisers some or all of these 10 essential questions, they might not have lost their life savings to the scammers. Here at Pension Life, we are working hard to help educate the masses
Cartoon blog – Don’t be the next pension scam victim Read More »
In my weekly hunt for the next firm to feature in my ´qualified and registered?´ blog series, I came across an advisory company that caught my attention: The Imperius Group, run by a fella named Tim Blogg, who claims to have retrained 25 years ago to offer pension and investment advice to expats. Regular followers
Don´t put your trust in The Imperius Group Read More »
International Investment has written a jolly good article about the recent action taken by the UAE Insurance Authority – headed up by His Excellency Ibrahim Al Zaabi. I quote from Gary Robinson’s article: “In a statement on the Arabic version on its website the IA has issued a circular confirming the suspension (of Holborn Assets) for a
UAE REGULATOR DOES A BIT OF REGULATING Read More »
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
10 essential questions to ask an IFA Read More »
Looking at International Adviser’s 2017 awards, I really think the judges were having a giraffe (or they were very drunk). “Best regular premium investment product – Hong Kong – Zurich International Life” Seriously? This grim firm has one of the most expensive long-term savings plans on the market. A victim scammed into buying one of
International Adviser – Giraffe Awards Read More »
OMI – Old Mutual International (Quilter), SEB, ZURICH, GENERALI, FRIENDS PROVIDENT, ZURICH INTERNATIONAL, RL360 AND HANSARD INTERNATIONAL. They are all as bad as each other. They rip their clients off, charging them huge fees and commissions, tying them into useless, pointless products for years. These LIFE OFFICES – which cause the death of many life savings
OMI – AND OTHER GRIM REAPERS Read More »
My name is Nikki Mitchell. Lets peep behind the scenes at life at Pension Life, fighting pension scams. I’m the newest member of the team. I started in June 2016 – there was a lot to learn in six months. I am PA to Angie, but most importantly I handle a wide variety of
Life at Pension Life Fighting Scams – Behind the Scenes Read More »
