Seems we can´t get enough of Holborn Assets’ cheek this week. CEO Bob Parker has sent out a Q1 2018 newsletter and included on his mailing list a very unsatisfied and traumatised client who, through Holborn Assets’ negligence, has suffered a significant loss to her pension fund, with no compensation – or even apology.
Glynis Broadfoot was a victim of Holborn Assets’ rotten advice and service in 2011 and which resulted in her losing a significant portion of what had originally been a final-salary pension which should never have been transferred in the first place. Holborn Assets refused to help her, and simply kept taking their extortionate fees from her ever-shrinking pension pot. They had invested her in high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes which were totally inappropriate for a low-risk investor.
You can imagine Mrs. Broadfoot’s fury and disgust when this message popped up in her inbox.
In summary, despite the expensive advice given to Mrs. Broadfoot by Holborn Assets, and assurances that her pension would grow at 8% per annum, she ended up losing nearly a third of her fund. Despite the fund’s losses, Holborn Assets continued to apply their fees to the fund, totaling somewhere in the region of £11k!
Holborn Assets informed her, at the height of her distress over her losses, that they “had closed the case, and would not enter into any further correspondence”. Yet now, several years on, it appears she’s still on their mailing list – despite knowing full well they have left this victim’s retirement prospects in tatters.
Mrs. Broadfoot’s case was typical of “fractional scams“: expensive and unnecessary insurance bond (only purpose was to pay a fat commission to the scammers); expensive, high-risk, professional-investor-only structured notes (again, high commissions for the scammers and heavy losses for the victim); hefty advisor fees. This was a very obvious scam which caused great suffering for the victim who is resident in Spain – but Holborn Assets was not licensed to provide investment advice in Spain.
In the years since Mrs. Broadfoot was scammed, Bob Parker did start to engage half-heartedly with a process of negotiating compensation for her losses. But so far she has not received one penny. Her local government final salary pension scheme – which she was conned into sacrificing by these unlicensed scammers – would have provided her with a guaranteed, index-linked pension for life and she could have retired comfortably. Instead, she has a seriously damaged fund which is unlikely to ever recover and provide her with the retirement income she needed and deserved.
So, far from getting the “best level of service and advice available” as boasted by Bob Parker, Mrs. Broadfoot was conned, scammed, fleeced and then dumped by Holborn Assets.
Which brings me on to the Trust Pilot reviews. Only 2% scored Holborn Assets as average or poor. Which is very surprising – given the number of people who report similar stories to Mrs. Broadfoot’s. But I think it is likely that those who gave four or five stars, haven’t yet found out what their losses are. In fact, some of these reviewers admit they were cold called by Holborn Assets. We know for sure Claudia Shaw was flogging the high-risk Premier New Earth Recycling UCIS fund to her victims and that there have been heavy investment losses.
One person who has given Holborn Assets a “poor” rating on Trust Pilot is a Mr. Norton who writes:
Not very impressed
I don’t believe anyone from Holborn has contacted me since September last year. In August 2016 I was contacted and advised to switch my policy which seemed ridiculous considering the additional charges I would incur, the fact it was even suggested causes me concern.
Then in September 2016, I was contacted to recommend my wealth manager for an award, again the audacity of this makes me wonder.
I have no idea on what your investment performance to date is over the past 12 months and I have not been given any confidence how my investments will be managed going forward now that I have finished paying your fees and I actually begin to get money invested.
I do plan to visit within the next month and hopefully by that stage you in a position to assure me I did not make a big mistake investing my money with you.
Regards
Ian Norton
Another victim has complained directly to Pension Life about the appalling treatment he has had at the hands of Holborn Assets:
“Since 2013, the fund has not done anything at all. The fees are much too high, excessive transactions have been made to earn themselves money on my account and the investments went down in value. There is no communication with Holborn Assets and they are unwilling to discuss this matter with me or to do anything about it.”
So, as the cheeky Bob Parker is aiming to infiltrate South Africa with his new weapon – the bright-eyed and bushy-chinned Lourens Reichert – I thought now would be a good time to make friends with Reichert and see if he can put some pressure on Uncle Bob. Reichert will, no doubt, be very pleased to help me sort these victims out – as he has a big bulging lump in his trousers courtesy of Bob’s golden handshake.
I might even nip down to Johannesburg and have a cup of tea and a cheeky biscuit with him. No doubt, he won’t want the sordid details of Holborn Assets’ scams to compromise his quest to conquer South Africa. If the natives find out just what his colleagues have been up to, he might find himself on the wrong end of a Zulu spear.
I am seriously concerned about the topics that you report in your posts, it seems to me that you have a personal vendetta against Holborn Assets and any other company that works in the industry, to top this off some of your comments are vile and very unpleasant to read. You would think that for someone who claims to be running a site that is fighting to help the forgotten and the people with no voices you would focus on true facts and not just rewrite public news and then try and Spin it as a negative against the industry. I have read all of your blogs and looked at the dates of them and they all seem to coincide with the original press releases of each story. From an outsiders point of view I would say that you are just taking everyday news, rewriting it and trying to get attention for yourself? What is your game plan, build up the traffic towards your site so that you can cash in and sell it on? Get paid by the companies you are so rude towards so to keep quite? It seems that the only person “scamming” here is you and for you own gain, you know that no one does anything for free.
Sorry if you think my reports are vile and unpleasant to read. May I suggest you don’t read them if they make you feel uncomfortable. Go and read something that makes you feel good about yourself – and turn a blind eye to the misery, destruction, poverty caused by firms such as Holborn Assets. I never write anything which is not 100% true and verified/backed up by solid evidence. I do sometimes report on what other journalists and bloggers write – but mostly it is original stuff based on facts as they unfold. I don’t know what you mean about building up traffic, cashing in and selling on – but whatever that means, why would I do it? I suggest you are one of the scammers, without enough balls to disclose your identity. So, until and unless you are prepared to engage transparently, please hop it.
You know why you would do it, your name is a joke in the industry as you are known for your tricks of trying to get paid to be quite. You make out you are doing it for other people but we know you are considering offers from multiple companies to stop posting your “fake news”.
From what has been published so far you clearly do your research and write what you believe to be the truth. From an outsiders point of view, what you write is always only one side of the story and is always written in the most negative way to try create as much damage as possible to the industry.
From the minimal research that has been undertaken it is obvious that you are just a lonely old lady living out your days in Spain regretting what you have not achieved in your life with nothing better to do than try and extort monies from the financial services companies to pay off your debts.
I wonder which companies payoff you will except? but the question is, once you have taken the cash what will you tell your followers then?
There are a few things which are obvious about you from your comment. First, you are clearly someone in the industry, and second you are a coward – because if you had any balls you would have disclosed your identity. If you read down the list of many comments, you will see that a large number of the victims give their names. The few who don’t, probably want anonymity because they haven’t told their families they have been scammed and want to keep their loss a secret. Thirdly, you are wrong – I am not considering any offers from “multiple companies”. Fourthly, I never post fake news – I only ever post what is clearly evidenced. I do, of course, post the side of the story of which I have evidence – however, it is always open to the scammers to provide their side of the story. But they rarely do.
I am not trying to create a negative view in order to damage the industry – quite the reverse in fact. There are many decent firms which are horrified at the disgusting practices of some of the unscrupulous firms and would like nothing better than to see these scammers shamed into reforming their methods and/or compensating their victims.
From your spiteful remarks about me, it is also clear that you are a nasty piece of work with a chip on your shoulder. What you have written says a lot about you and nothing about me – so you are also pretty stupid as you have not achieved what you clearly set out to do.
However, if any of the firms in question did offer to pay me off, I would accept thankfully on condition that they also paid off all their victims (why on earth wouldn’t I?). And I would use the money to provide pro bono membership to those who can’t afford it. And I would tell everybody – publicly and proudly. It has never happened yet – but who knows? Maybe something good will come out of your comments – despite the fact that “good” was the last thing on your agenda.
Angie,
I too am concerned about what you write. What is certainly clear is that you DONT base your accusations on 100% fact. I know of Lourens Reichert in South Africa who is ex Devere and have met him more than once.
Even though Devere has the worst name in the industry he was not just one of their top advisrs; he was also their most ethical. We have heard this from clients and providers alike. Unheard of in Deveer but he has never generated a single client complaint, from what I hear inside the industry.
I am also surprised that you atack Holborn and Guardian, but leave devere alone!! They lost millions of dollars of clients money through their Belvedere scandal. So can only assume your on their payroll or work for them. Probably bitter that Lourens left.
Also I’d love to see this 100% proof you have a golden handshake?? I’m willing to bet you can’t. Im surprised that Lourens doesn’t sue you for slander.
You are a fake, and just have to read how you write your nonsense to see it…
Well at least you’ve given your real name and email address, so I guess you have some balls. I can assure you I always base what I write on solid, evidenced fact. If you think so highly of Lourens Reichert, you should tell him what an appalling mistake he has made by going to work for Holborn Assets – a firm which routinely destroys innocent victims’ life savings and then leaves them hung out to dry. If, as you say, Reichert is ethical, then he should know better. I leave deVere alone because I don’t have any complaints against the firm. I am certainly not on their “payroll”. Just because you don’t agree with what I write, doesn’t mean I am a fake. It just means you are a bit dim. Reichert hasn’t sued me for slander because what I have written is true and he can’t deny it.