Tag: RL360

Cold calling scammers target expats after the ban in UK – BBC4 You and Yours

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 people can fall for their slick pitches. Often the scammers use cold-calling techniques to initiate these pitches: using emails, texts, mail shots and the good ol’ phone.

We finally saw the introduction of the cold calling ban come into place in January 2019, with huge fines being threatened to firms using these techniques to promote pension sales. We have already written about the firms who have changed their scripts to escape the fines: Cadde Wealth Management is one of these firms. On top of this, we now find that the cold-calling ban has just encouraged the scammers to divert their efforts to British expats.

BBC4 You and Yours recently discussed how the cold-calling ban in the UK has seen a change in the scammers’ behaviour. Unfortunately, this is not a change for the better. As the ban only applies to the UK, scammers are targeting expats instead. This means UK pension holders are still the main target for pension scammers and are at greater risk than ever.

Listen to the show here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000241

Interviewed in the programme, Jamie Jenkins says he has noticed this change. He is Head of Global Saving Policy at Standard Life. He states in the report, “In recent months we have known that the cold-calling ban is coming in and criminals know that too. So we have seen a switch from cold calls originating in the UK to UK customers, to overseas calls to expat customers living abroad.”

Ironically, Standard Life has been one of the worst performers in terms of ceding pension providers who have recklessly and negligently handed over millions of pounds’ worth of pensions to the scammers. Completely ignoring the Pensions Regulator’s warnings in 2010, they shoveled £millions across to pension scams such as Ark, Capita Oak, Westminster, Continental Wealth Management, Global Fiduciary Services and many other QROPS scams.

Here at Pension Life, we know that expats are not just a new target of cold callers – many expats have already fallen victim to horrific pension scams, like those who lost large chunks of their pension funds to CWM. Continental Wealth Management fraudsters like Darren Kirby, cold-called victims, then followed through with repeat house calls and persuaded around 1,000 UK pension holders to transfer out of safe DB pensions into QROPS and illegally-sold life insurance bonds (such as OMI, Generali, SEB, RL360). With promises of high returns, a lump sum in cash and greater freedoms, many professional and well-educated people fell for the scam.

Many victims are now trapped in bogus life “bonds” that are falling in value yearly, while the life offices continue to take their quarterly charges – further damaging the impaired funds. Fortunately, the Spanish regulator – the DGS – has outlawed the selling of bogus life assurance policies this week, ensuring there should be fewer victims of this type of scam.

Here is our cartoon video reconstruction of how the Continental Wealth Management scam worked:

The BBC programme also talks to a Continental Wealth Management victim, Rebecca Cooke, who lost £75,000 after transferring out of an NHS pension and other secure investments.

“We were approached in 2012/13 by a company based in Spain (Continental Wealth Management) who were offering us advice about moving our private pension from the UK into another investment scheme based in the EU. We went with them, but it became blatantly obvious that we had suffered catastrophic losses in our pension and chased them up about what was happening. They had actually invested our funds badly and put them in high-risk rather in low to medium risk funds. Consequently, we had lost that amount of money (£75,000).”

She said she feels stupid for falling for the scam, but she is not alone in believing the shiny sales pitch of these scamming criminals.

It seems the only way to escape the scammers – anywhere in the world – is not to fall for their lies. But the challenge is to know what is true and what is false. And that isn’t easy – the scammers are very clever and can adapt quickly to invalidate public warnings and even use them to their advantage. In addition to the scammers, there are now offshore claims management companies circling like vultures and conning people into believing that complaints against offshore firms can be upheld by UK-based ombudsmen – and that claims can be made against the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) in respect of Maltese trustees.

Know what questions to ask your IFA, click here to watch our cartoon

February 20, 2019
Death of the Life Bond (Life of the Death Bond?)
Attention financial advisers in Spain/who provide financial advice to Spanish residents.

18^th 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 the sale of insurance products. The DGS also made it clear that even if a firm is not regulated in Spain by the DGS, it must conform to the Spanish regulations.

The deadline for compliance with the order was Monday 11^th February. Unsurprisingly, CWM failed to comply. CWM had collapsed in September 2017 and all the scammers who worked for the firm headed for the hills (or Australia). We are now enforcing this order by criminal action against all those responsible. This also opens the way for similar action against any other firms who have mis-sold insurance products without complying with the Spanish regulations.

In certain, limited circumstances, insurance bonds can be beneficial. But in the vast majority of cases they are entirely mis-sold, and the underlying commissions concealed. These hidden commissions prevent the funds from growing and have an ever-increasing detrimental effect on the value of the fund. I have seen evidence of an entire fund being destroyed by irresponsible, risky, commission-laden investments. The life offices (such as OMI, SEB, FPI, RL360 and Generali) continue to apply their quarterly charges while the funds are being destroyed – sometimes even pushing the funds into negative territory.

Why should the use of life bonds be strictly controlled?

I have transcribed the DGS’ judgment below. It is an abbreviated, translated version of the original. I also set out below the reasons why life bonds should now be strictly controlled and only sold/advised by qualified, regulated firms. Once an international standards agreement has been established, it should be possible to ensure that only those firms who understand how to use these products properly will use them in future.

I hope that all advisers providing insurance advice in Spain – and beyond – will now ensure that losses caused by the mis-selling of life bonds are put right. I also hope that this policy will be adopted throughout Europe and in all other jurisdictions so that the worldwide mis-selling scandal can finally be ended.

There will be criminal proceedings – and these will extend to the life offices themselves for profiting from financial crime. The many victims whose life savings have been destroyed by the life offices and their toxic practices will welcome this news. The victims themselves know intimately the numerous faults of the life offices:
- accepting business from (and paying undisclosed commissions to) known scammers and unregulated advisory firms
- offering high-risk, unregulated funds such as Axiom, LM, Premier New Earth and other no-hoper funds
- offering professional-investor-only structured notes from providers such as Leonteq, Commerzbank and Nomura
- reporting the inexorable losses but taking no remedial action
- locking victims into the expensive, pointless bonds long after the majority of the funds had been destroyed
This latest development with the DGS judgment will help the victims take action against negligent life offices such as Old Mutual International and Friends Provident International. This will be a powerful weapon in the recovery process against these parasitic, negligent and greedy insurance companies.

I set out below, in red, reasons why insurance bonds should now be strictly controlled internationally. This is not just my opinion – but an order by the Spanish government. In my view, this is a very sensible and useful order which is in the interests of all consumers throughout Europe and the wider world.

Decent, ethical, regulated firms will comply with the DGS’ judgment. The scammers will not.

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Madrid, 10 January 2019 – Complaints service file number 268/2016

Chief Inspector of Unit – Ministry of Economy and Enterprise

Secretary of State for the Economy and Business Support

General Directorate of Insurance and Pension Funds (DGS)

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….”

The scammers do not, of course, comply with this regulation. In fact, scammers rarely tell their clients that they are going to be put into an insurance bond. Unscrupulous advisers often conceal how the bond will work or for how many years they will be locked in for. Normally, scammers wave an agreement for an OMI, SEB, Generali, FPI or RL360 bond under the nose of the clients – and ask them to sign the agreement with no explanation. Rarely do the scammers allow the client to read the document properly, or disclose the commission they will receive from selling the often pointless bond.

Victims will be locked into the bond long after they have worked out that the adviser has mis-sold the product purely for the 8% commission – and that the charges will prevent the fund from ever growing. In fact, even if the underlying asset were to perform reasonably well, it would struggle to keep up with the combination of the bond and adviser costs.

It is rarely explained that the bond is a bogus life assurance policy (or series of policies); that any life cover is only actually 101% of the original value of the funds the victim has unwittingly placed into the bond. If all the clients had wanted was life cover in the first place, this product would represent terrible value for money. The Spanish Supreme Court has already ruled that life assurance policies are void for the purpose of holding investments – because the life office takes no risk.

Therefore, the life bond fails on three counts:
1. it is a useless life assurance policy
2. it is a useless investment platform
3. it does not comply with Spanish regulations.
I could go on: the life bond is expensive; fails to disclose adviser commissions; offers high-risk, unregulated funds; accepts business from known scammers and unregulated firms; allows professional-investor-only structured notes for retail investors. The list is endless.

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.”

If the client had stipulated that he needed a life assurance policy (which he usually didn’t), the adviser should have explained fully how and why any product offered fitted the client’s needs. This virtually never happens. The adviser has already decided (long before he has even met the client – let alone carried out a fact find) – that he is going to flog him a bond from whichever life company is paying the highest commission. And this is how so many victims end up with useless insurance products from OMI, SEB, Generali, RL360, Friends Provident International, Hansard, Investors Trust etc.

Even if the client had specifically asked for – say – £100,000 worth of life cover, these “life” policies could never guarantee to provide that cover. In a proper, bona fide life assurance contract (where the client pays a monthly premium for the life of the policy) the pay-out is guaranteed. In these bogus life assurance policies, the value of the pay-out inevitably decreases as the charges eat into the fund. This is normally the case when disproportionately risky investments are made by the life offices.

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.”
This rarely happens in practice – unless the broker is one of the very few professional and ethical firms in the expat world. An adviser might claim to be based in one jurisdiction, but could – in fact – be based in an entirely different one. “Passporting” is often misused as advisers “fly in under the radar” and provide advice in jurisdictions where they have no legal right to operate.

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.

Agents often have terms of business with more than one life office – but will rarely disclose the fact that some or all of them have a long history of facilitating financial crime internationally.

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.

I have never seen an instance of this happening – which is not to say it doesn’t happen. Just that I haven’t seen it. But then people don’t come to me when things are going swimmingly – they only come when they have lost some, most or all of their fund.

Banking and insurance operators 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.

And herein lies the problem: the advice is rarely provided for the purpose of taking out an insurance policy – the advice is usually given because the client wants his pension or life savings invested safely, prudently and profitably. Few – if any – clients come to the adviser to ask for a life assurance policy. But they get one, whether they need it – or can afford it – or not.

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.”

I have never seen an example of an adviser offering a client a selection of possible insurance contracts. The adviser has normally decided which life product he is going to flog long before the client even walks through the door. In a normal insurance contract relationship, it is the insurer which takes the risk. But in life bond contracts, it is the insured who takes the risk – i.e. that his life cover will be substantially lower than that originally contracted and that, indeed, his fund will be severely impaired by the costs of the contract.

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.

I have never seen this happen – which is not to say that it doesn’t happen. But the adviser could only explain to the customer that the sole purpose of the life bond is to pay him 8% commission. And that would inevitably spook the customer – so the adviser doesn’t bother. There will surely be all sorts of flim-flam about the life bond allegedly providing tax efficiency. However, any real tax savings will be resoundingly eclipsed by the high charges.

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.

I have never seen a single instance of an intermediary complying with the DGS rules in Spain or anywhere else. But that is because I only ever hear about cases where the clients suffer losses. The people who are well looked after by competent, professional, ethical brokers never bother contacting me – because they don’t need to! However, I would love to hear from advisers who do abide by the rules.

Every insurance intermediary is obliged, before the conclusion of the insurance contract, to provide full disclosure.

Never happens in my experience. The commission is normally concealed, and the inflexibility of the lock-in period is rarely explained. The victims usually only find this out after they have realised they have been scammed.

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.

Never happens in my experience. The adviser/mediator doesn’t use the life assurance product for life assurance, but as a bogus “wrapper” for holding investments. Therefore, the likely outcome of any objective analysis is very unlikely ever to be fulfilled.

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.

I have never seen an instance of a mediator offering a selection of possible contracts – and there are no risks to be covered, as the insurer takes no risks. This is why these products have been deemed by the Spanish Supreme Court to be invalid. However, if a mediator were to offer a “selection” of life bonds, they would all be identical as they are all just as bad as each other.

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.

As it has in just about every instance I have ever seen in Spain – and beyond. In fact, one firm in Spain – Blevins Franks – only offers one insurance product and that is Lombard. This is completely illegal.

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.

I have never seen an instance of any firm complying with the obligations imposed by law in Spain. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen – and I would love to hear from firms who do comply with this law so that my knowledge can be broadened. However, if this does happen, it is only likely to be in the case of ethical firms, and they are unlikely to use these bogus life assurance policies anyway.

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 entity – Continental Wealth Management – did not, indeed, comply with the DGS’ requirement. This now gives the green light for this firm and the directors and shadow directors associated with it – as well as the life office which was complicit in this scam – to be subject to criminal proceedings. The life offices, in this case, were complicit as they were effectively profiting from financial crime.

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.

THE DEATH OF THE LIFE BOND

I think it would be no understatement to say that this heralds the end of the mis-use and abuse of life bonds (also known as portfolio bonds or insurance bonds). Not just in Spain, but throughout Europe and beyond. This will be warmly welcomed by the thousands of victims who have lost their life savings to rogue insurance companies such as OMI, SEB, FPI and Generali, and unregulated scammers such as Continental Wealth Management.

The ethical sector of the financial advice industry will, of course, be delighted – and there will be a mad scramble by the rogues to find a way round this ruling. And they will fail.
February 18, 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.

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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
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
Cartoon blog – Don’t be the next pension scam victim

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 and stop pension scammers in their tracks worldwide. By arming and informing the public, and teaching them how to spot the scammers and avoid being scammed, we can help put a stop to these crimes.

With the scammers outsmarted, there will hopefully be fewer pension scam victims!

We have put together this cartoon which provides you, the investor, with 10 essential questions to ask your offshore adviser before you sign your precious pension fund over. Knowing what questions to ask could mean you do not become the next pension scam victim.

1. Pension Life has covered what qualifications your adviser needs to give pension advice. The adviser should also be able to show you their certificates and be registered with the governing body that awarded them – typically CII or CISI qualifications. We have created a series of blogs “firm name – qualified and registered?” which cover many offshore advisory firms and their team members. They show the firms that list employees who claim qualifications but are not registered and have failed to supplied proof and which firms are transparent. Some firms are happy to work with us and be 100% transparent and demonstrate that their team of advisers are fully qualified and registered.

2. Many offshore companies are regulated with an insurance licence ONLY and this is not sufficient to give pension and investment advice. They must have a licence to give advice on pensions and investments.

3. We have seen many companies with flash websites posing as financial advisory firms. Their spiel gives the impression they are a large company, but when you dig deeper you find they are a one-man band like the Imperius Group, and often unqualified AND unregulated like Callaghan QROPS.

4. Insurance bonds are an expensive and unnecessary double wrapper on your pension. If it has already been invested in a SIPPS or a QROPS, insurance bonds are not needed. Insurance bonds are another way for the scammers to skim more commissions from your fund, putting a dent in your start and end value. Life offices such as Old Mutual International, Generali and RL360 are among the firms (known as life offices) to be avoided.

5. Structured note providers such as Leonteq, Nomura, Royal Bank of Canada and Commerzbank should be avoided. These companies are linked to previous pension scams and many victims have seen their pension funds destroyed with these high-risk, fixed-term notes, that are totally unsuitable for a pension fund. Often these structured notes have high commissions that make the ‘adviser’ big bucks.

6. Holding a DB pension puts you in good stead for your retirement. With a pension fund like this you are often better to ‘just do nothing’ and leave it as it is. Transferring it can lead to heavy charges and fees, meaning your fund becomes worth much less than before.

7. A pension is classed as a retail investment and needs to be invested in low to medium risk investments with a steady increase in value. Offers of high returns, especially in investments that use words like “renewable energies” or “property”, are illiquid and high risk. These types of investments are not safe for your pension. An example of this is the Elysian bio-fuels pension scam, facilitated by James Hay and Dolphin Trust – a German housing investment scheme – promoted to British steelworkers.

8. Time and time again, we see pension scam victims receiving the paperwork on the pension transfer ‘deal’ they have signed, only to realise that large fees and charges have been applied. The scammers are experts at hiding the charges and often quote the term: ‘free pension review’. Whilst they do not charge for all their visits and advice before you sign on the dotted line, they make up for this in transfer fees, commissions and often quarterly charges too! The quarterly charges will be applied no matter how your fund is doing. We have seen pension scam victims´ funds end up in negative equity due to being placed into an inappropriate fund which causes losses and second, continuing fees being applied. (Fees are normally based on the start value of the fund).

9. With the technology we have today, like smart phone apps, many firms are offering instant access to the progress of your pension fund through their own app. Options exist to add funds or change your investments and total transparency of investments and progress; a company that offers this service is Pension Bee. You should also get quarterly statements and annual reviews so you can track the progress of your fund.

10. We have seen pension scam victims repeatedly contacting their so-called advisers to try to get information on the demise of their fund, only to meet dead end after dead end. Again, ensure you are using a fully licensed firm that has an admin, compliance and support team. Ensure you are able to get a set of contact details (if not two!) and that there is a ‘real’ address and a landline – scammers often use PO boxes and mobile numbers.

Remember, it is your pension and your investment; you are entitled to ask as many questions as you like. These essential questions to ask offshore advisers should be simple for any trustworthy and transparent adviser to answer quickly and effortlessly. If your adviser is in any way cagey, vague or tries to avoid the question altogether, just walk away. An adviser who is unwilling to be totally transparent could well be a scammer.

Don’t be the next pension scam victim – wise up!

October 2, 2018
Don´t put your trust in The Imperius Group

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 of Pension Life blogs will know that my current mission is unearthing advisers who claim to be fully qualified but fail to show up on any official registers (CII, CISI, LIBF). If they do not show on any register, how do we know that the qualifications they claim to have were actually achieved? If these offshore advisers refuse to follow the guidelines, how can they be trusted? Furthermore, if they are not registered, then they should not be making claims to these qualifications.

The reason Tim Blogg´s company, The Imperius Group, flashed up on my red beacon radar was the fact that he listed his company in partnership with various life assurance offices including OMI (Old Mutual International) and Generali. Links to these companies, a well-read Pension Life blog follower will know, is not a good thing. They are also linked to RL360 and Hansard Global.

Tim Blogg also has a bright and shiny Dolphin Trust logo underneath the mug shot of him and a promise of:

“I could give you a 10% annual return on your investment through tried and tested plans – if you’d like to find out more click here to read more about one of our most lucrative investment opportunities.”

Tim Blogg offers “strong steps into German property investment”, through Dolphin Trust (loan notes).

Ring any bells?

British Steelworkers were duped into investing their DB pension schemes into – yes, you´ve got it – into an unregulated fund: Dolphin Trust (in Germany). Celtic Wealth Management acted as the introducers to this investment and Active Wealth – now collapsed – acted as the advisory company. This investment scam has left British Steelworkers trapped and at risk in this totally unsuitable, unregulated investment.

Dolphin Trust IS NOT regulated and there is no evidence to show The Imperius Group is either.

Tim Blogg, founder of The Imperius Group, DOES NOT APPEAR ON ANY REGISTER as a qualified and registered financial adviser.

Aside from Tim Blogg, the only other person who claims to work for The Imperius Group is a lady called Emma Allen, listing herself as, ´Employed as a Personal Assistant by iBOS working for the Managing Director of The Imperius Group Limited.´ The Imperius Group website quotes the term ´us´ regularly, but from what I have found, it would seem this company is pretty much a one-man unqualified band.

Dolphin Trust has been used by an awful lot of pension and investment scammers – including Stephen Ward in the London Quantum pension scam (now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees).

Once again, I am left wringing my hands in despair at the state of the offshore financial sector and at purported financial advisers like Tim Blogg.

However, at least I will sleep soundly tonight knowing that another financial advisory firm has been outed. The Imperius Group and Dolphin Trust are not the company to trust with your precious pension fund.

To demonstrate the serious concerns about investments in Dolphin Trust, this is a copy of a letter sent by Charles Smethurst CEO of Dolphin Trust to investors. It would seem that although some investments have reached their maturity, other investors are still waiting for their funds to be released. This raises questions about the liquidity of funds and also the possibility of Dolphin Trust going bankrupt. Maybe the victims will have a claim over the properties, if indeed the German properties they think they have invested in actually exist.

August 29, 2018
UAE REGULATOR DOES A BIT OF REGULATING

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 period of three months or until it is satisfied that the company has improved its performance.

According to Dubai-based sources that International Investment has been speaking to, the IA has written to regulated insurance companies notifying them of their action.”

I have no doubt that Holborn Assets will rise to the challenge magnificently and in a dignified manner – and will recognise the fact that it is time for the routine misuse of all insurance bonds in offshore financial services to come to an end. I also doubt Holborn Assets will sell any more RL360 products.

The Continental Wealth Management debacle must surely serve as a perfect example of how and why insurance bonds should not be used at all – and indeed how and why structured notes should be banned altogether. And yet, despite the Malta FSC’s lukewarm change in regulations to ban advisers without an investment license and limit structured notes to 30% of a portfolio, useless/pointless insurance bonds and toxic structured notes are very much the norm across the offshore financial services landscape.

The Eagle-eyed Sheikh Al Zaabi has obviously spotted something that regulators in all jurisdictions which affect British expats have turned a deliberate blind eye to. Insurance products can, have been, and are routinely abused. And the abusers often cause heavy losses to thousands of unfortunate victims. His Eminence also obviously recognises that turning a blind eye damages not only the jurisdiction in question, but also the reputation of financial services in general.

Quite frankly, it is shameful and embarrassing how many regulators behave (or rather fail to behave).

The FCA takes no action even when their nose is rubbed into obvious fraud – and let the British Steel disaster happen under their very noses. In fact it took public-spirited independent financial services professionals such as Al Rush, Darren Cooke and Henry Tapper to take it on themselves to try to rescue the steelworkers while the scammers hovered like vultures. I would like to be proud to be British, but the FCA is a national disgrace and an embarrassment to all British citizens. I wouldn’t mind if the FCA was just lazy, but it simply doesn’t care about the interests of those who get conned and scammed.

The Guernsey FSC allowed many frauds, including trustees Concept Trustees to sell UCIS fund EEA Life Settlements even after the FSA “toxic” warning. And, of course, EEA Life Settlements itself. Then the stable door shut with a resounding clang as an ombudsman was brought in, but told not to hear any complaints prior to July 2013. This effectively excluded all the worst scams which were being carried out in Guernsey by the likes of Concept Trustees – which took business from Stephen Ward’s Premier Pension Solutions which neither had regulation nor professional indemnity insurance.

The Gibraltar FSC appears to actively encourage outright scammers such STM Fidecs – and when financial crime is brought to their attention they go fishing for a few small, wet fish. Talking of fish, I think it is very fishy that Paul Garner, now of the Gibraltar FSC, used to work for scammer XXXX XXXX at Global Partners Ltd – the firm that “advised” hundreds of UK-resident victims to transfer their pensions to an STM Fidecs QROPS. Then STM Fidecs allowed XXXX XXXX to invest 100% of 100% of these victims’ funds into his own UCIS fund: Trafalgar Multi Asset (now in liquidation). I genuinely don’t know at which point Paul Garner moved over from Global Partners Limited to the Gibraltar FSC……but I have a feeling his leaving do will be an exceptionally (and uncharacteristically) lavish affair – and I am very much hoping to be invited. I hear there will be something fishy on the menu and Garner’s good fortune will be toasted with something bubbly. I have no doubt the cleaners will effectively brush all the crumbs under the carpet after the party.

The Central Bank of Ireland will be put to the test when scammers SEB (formerly Irish Life) are put in the spotlight. CBI has known for years that SEB – led by Peder Nateus and Conor McCarthy – has been facilitating financial crime. SEB took £ millions’ worth of business from unlicensed scammers Continental Wealth Management and allowed the whole lot to be invested in toxic structured notes: “for professional investors only”. These notes – including the fraudulent Leonteq ones (over which OMI is now suing Leonteq) clearly warned of the “danger of loss of part or all of your capital”. And yet SEB sat there and watched while hundreds of CWM‘s clients’ victims’ life savings were destroyed – and did nothing. This has left many victims in despair and poverty – with some contemplating suicide.

Against this backdrop of extreme ineptitude and collusion amongst this collection of chocolate teapots, motorbike ashtrays and fishnet willy warmers, let us all hope that the UAE Insurance Authority shows all these no-hopers what effective regulation should look, smell and feel like.

June 28, 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
International Adviser – Giraffe Awards

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 these toxic, inflexible products will pay 48.07% of their savings in fees to Zurich. To put this into real numbers, a victim who saves £366,600 over a 25-year period, will pay £176,240 in fees.

In this disgraceful long-term rip-off contest, Zurich is in the midst of the others who similarly overcharge their victims with these undisclosed charges: RL360 at 51.68%, Hansard at 51.28%, Generali at 47.08% and Friends Provident at 46.64%. Savers would be better off sticking their savings under the mattress, away from the greedy clutches of these rip-off merchants.

“Best regular premium investment product – Singapore – Friends Provident International”

OK, perhaps the least expensive of the big five, but still 46.64% is ludicrously expensive. These long-term savings plans are routinely mis-sold and victims end up losing most of what they have saved.

“Readers choice – Europe – SEB International”

This life office was routinely ripping off pension savers by taking business from unlicensed, unqualified, unscrupulous scammers Continental Wealth Management from 2010 to 2017. To the tune of 1,000 victims with £100 million worth of investments. About half of which has been destroyed. SEB stood by and watched CWM invest hundreds of victims’ life savings in toxic, high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes. As the scammers gambled away millions of pounds, SEB kept taking their fees – based on the original investment value. In this case, all of SEB’s victims lost part or all of their retirement funds.

I HAVE DECIDED TO INVITE MY FRIENDS AT INTERNATIONAL ADVISER TO LAUNCH A NEW AWARDS CEREMONY:

THE GIRAFFE AWARDS

My proposal is that awards are given every year for the worst performers in terms of either operating scams or facilitating them. Let us be very clear – we are talking about financial crime here. It is extremely important that publications such as International Adviser do their bit in cleaning up the financial services industry. That is why these awards are so important.

The judges should be the victims themselves. Here are my nominations – but am more than happy for victims to suggest others:

Advisory Firms: Continental Wealth Management, Holborn Assets

Pension Trustees: Concept, STM Fidecs, Fast Pensions

Life Offices: SEB, Generali, Hansard

Funds: Blackmore Global, Trafalgar Multi-Asset, Christianson Property Capital

Structured Product Providers: Leonteq, Nomura, RBC, Commerzbank

Regulators: Isle of Man, New Zealand, United Kingdom

It is clear that regulators and ombudsmen are useless, limp and disinterested in how their respective jurisdictions operate financial crime so routinely. International Adviser could emerge the hero by exposing the appalling practices in offshore financial services which routinely destroy victims’ retirement savings. (Or not, as the case may be).

May 28, 2018
OMI – AND OTHER GRIM REAPERS

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 – use unregulated advisers to flog their crummy wares. It is hard to tell which of these bandits is the worst.

For years life offices charged their huge fees, paid Continental Wealth Management huge commissions, and sat idly by as they watched hundreds’ of victims’ pensions plummet in value as CWM played roulette with the funds using toxic structured notes from Commerzbank, RBC, Nomura and Leonteq.

One Generali victim saw her £119k pension fund plummet to £36k in five years.

Neither Generali nor SEB has offered any compensation to the hundreds of victims in the Continental Wealth Management scam. Undoubtedly, they treat all their victims just the same: BADLY.

Pension scams are not the only arrangements that these life offices profit handsomely from. Another method they use to rinse extortionate fees out of unsuspecting victims is the LONG TERM SAVINGS PLAN. Clients think these are a good idea until they realise the huge hidden charges which decimate the funds they put towards these plans.

And when they finally admit to themselves that they have been conned, the victims discover how inflexible these plans are with fatal exit arrangements that can wipe every last penny saved.

It is time to recognise and admit that if life offices continue to behave in this way, they have no place in pension and retirement arrangements – since all they do is facilitate catastrophic losses. It is also time to expose the fact that life offices’ long-term savings plans merely fleece savers and put their savings at risk.

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As always, Pension Life would like to remind you that if you are planning to transfer any pension funds, make sure that you are transferring into a legitimate scheme. 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.

January 9, 2018
Life at Pension Life Fighting Scams – Behind the Scenes

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 tasks.

Angie has been defending people scammed out of their pensions since 2013. My colleague Sue Halfyard’s role is member administration. She completes all the essential documentation that we, HMRC, Dalriada Trustees and the solicitors need. Sue also liaises with HMRC on the unauthorised payment tax appeals and helps Angie prepare for the Tax Tribunals. Elizabeth is our website and blog-writer and is currently on maternity leave.

Our website is not only a place to inform people of the work we do, and how we can help people who have fallen foul of pension scammers, but it also serves as a platform to warn others about scammers, so that hopefully we can stop them losing their life savings.

We are currently dealing with over 30 different schemes:

Ark; Axiom UP; Barret and Dalton; Baxendale Walker; Capita Oak; Confiance; Continental Wealth Management; EEA/Concept Trustees; Elysian Fuels/SIPPS; Evergreen QROPS; Headforte; Henley; Holborn Assets/Gower Pensions; Holbrook Capital; KJK Investments; Ledger and Simmons; London Quantum; Malvern; Mendip; RL360; Hansard/Trafalgar; LM; Optimus Retirement Benefit Scheme No 1; Peak Performance; Pennines; Salmon Enterprises; Store First SIPPS; Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund/STM Fidecs; Tudor Capital Management; Westminster; Windsor Pensions.

Sadly, most months we hear about new ones.

Day to day work in the office consists of managing Angie’s crowded diary, keeping the accounts, liaising with members to keep them abreast of new developments, preparing scheme and member files for the legal teams, responding to the demands of HMRC and various trustees. I also work on campaigns to raise awareness of pension scams, or to campaign for changes in the law to protect pension investments.

My first few weeks passed in a whirl of new jargon and abbreviations – UTR, Q10, MPVA EIS, PCLS, etc. Some days I spend the day designing and completing databases with members’ information for the solicitors. Other days I’m number crunching the transfer and loan amounts for an individual scheme. Some days we all have to change direction as there has been an urgent development. A recent example of this was the Standstill Agreements sent out by Dalriada – the trustees of the Ark Pension schemes. Our first member received an agreement in August 2016. We have warned all the members that they will be receiving one, and worked with our solicitors to redraft the agreement to protect the members’ interests.

Being a small, busy team in a hectic office, there is never a dull moment. Aside from the daily nitty-gritty of the work, there are also the heart-breaking accounts of the members who have been scammed out of their pensions. Consequently, I have felt disbelief at the cruel contempt of the scammers. Reading members’ stories of how they were conned into investing their entire pensions or life savings into dodgy, illiquid schemes is utterly heart-breaking. Speaking to people who have lost everything – their homes, their marriages and their health – through the actions of these arrogant, greedy con-men fills me with horror.

The greatest shock to me since joining Pension Life has been how the scammers have continually got away with fraud and theft for years. Also, how ceding providers routinely transfer pensions with hardly even the most rudimentary checks. It has amazed me how so many different types of pension scams are allowed to be set up time and time again, with no thorough controls by HMRC or the regulators. Moreover, I can’t understand why it takes so long for the scams to be shut down – long after they have been identified.

We may be a small team here at Pension Life, but with the government’s recent realisation that cold calling needs to be outlawed and the consultation on pension scams:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pension-scams

we are hopeful that there may finally be light at the end of the tunnel for existing victims and jail for the scammers.

January 2, 2017