Pension Scams – The Empty Box

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Pension Scams – The Empty Box

Yesterday I outlined that 2015 has been a poor year for investors. I also pointed to not making a bad situation worse by making further mistakes. Invariably and sadly, many are tempted by high returns elsewhere in an effort to recoup losses and/or an unwillingness to accept the reality of life.

Unfortunately, there is always a willing con-man to part you from your money with promises that tempt some to make some dreadful decisions. The BBC radio 4 programme “You and Yours” which can be found on the iplayer which aired 2 weeks ago (3rd December) is worth listening to. It’s a 45 minute show, so put it on whilst you are wrapping gifts for Christmas. You can find it here. (click)

This story has been around for a while, the regulator warned about it some time ago. In a nutshell, this is the story of pension liberation, though I don’t think the term is used anywhere (it ought to be). The brief version is that investors were encouraged to move their pensions into a SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension) and once there, the money was invested into a “fund” which is unregulated. The fund was actually a “dead cert” of an investment, which was actually storage units or “storage pods” with Store First. One might hope that most people would think at least twice before making such an “off the page” investment, but it doesn’t help when a well-known person from the media appears in the commercial suggesting the implausible is possible… in fact guaranteed.

The Empty Box

Recap: the investment actually went buying a storage unit, then hoping that it will be rented and that the pod will appreciate in value. The price of the pod does not appear to be a market rate and attempting to sell the pod at anything like the purchase price is… well something about snowballs and hell freezing over. Note there are many similar “opportunities” arriving to your spam mailbox.

Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with anyone renting or offering to rent or run a business that rents storage space. However as a direct investment, you are essentially becoming a business that rents storage space, so do you have all the facts to hand? and even if that is the case, of all the business opportunities “out there” do you really want to rent a box to others for profit? How much of such a business strategy is actually within your control?

There are lots of problems with what happened, for starters the advisers were not authorised (qualified, vetted, approved and regulated) advisers and they breached all sorts of regulatory standards. The processes involved were corrupted and frankly anyone doing even a modicum of research would probably conclude that this is not typical investing.

Unfortunately as the “fund” is unregulated, there is no compensation, despite appearing within a pension.

Tomorrow I will conclude by outlining some of the facts and part-truths from the Radio 4 programme, so that you don’t fall victim to something similar.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Pension Scams – The Empty BoxDominic2023-12-01T12:19:40+00:00

Can the Money Box Producer invest £5,000?

Earlier this month Money Box, the BBC Radio 4 programme decided to find out how easy it was for a complete novice to do their own investing. He has a sum of £5,000 representing his life savings, which is otherwise held on deposit in his bank earning less than 1% interest.

Financial Planning Basics

It is true to say that basic financial planning is straight-forward, yet most people fail to do the most basic tasks. Financial advisers may therefore spend considerable time, helping clients to get the basics in place. This was touched on in the programme, but very briefly. In essence, ensuring that your finances are under control, knowing what you spend and what you earn, having suitable reserves (3-6 months of spending). Having a Will, adequate financial protection and clearing debt etc.

Too small-fry?

As a result the starting premise of the show is how to invest £5,000. In truth the vast majority of financial advisers are not really interested in this level of work. Its not financially worthwhile and its not satisfying work. A good planner will take investors through a risk assessment, invariably a questionnaire which helps start the process of explaining and understanding investment “risk”. In truth this ought to be a straight-forward process, but it often isn’t. DIY investing is fine for low levels of funds, but when the sums get bigger, so does the complexity.

How much is a pint of milk?

Sadly Wesley didn’t really do DIY investing. He asked for advice and then went to the investment company to find that they required £100,000 as a minimum to invest directly through them. Alternatively he could access the fund through a platform. He then asked a very good chap Mark Polson, who assesses platforms for people like me, about which platform to use. This is an art and science. However, Mark rightly points out that using a platform will cost typically 0.25%-0.35% for using their administration. That’s £12.50 – £17.50 for a £5,000 investment. I’d call that peanuts, though I’m sure Money Box would disagree.

Investing is not gambling. Gambling is gambling.

I was also disappointed to hear the description of investing as a “gamble” from someone in the know (Candid Money). It carries risk but it is not gambling. Thankfully ludicrous questions were kicked into touch and Mark also pointed out that “best” and “cheapest” are two different things. Paul Lewis also seems to think that charges are a loss. They are a cost of investing, not a loss (and free banking isn’t free, its cross subsidized by loans etc).

The DIY Investor

I have lots of sympathy with people that find financial planning expensive and also have had bad experiences. I recently met with a potential client who is a DIY investor, but really wanted to know how to minimise capital gains tax. He was a bright guy, but fairly unusual, holding shares in just two companies worth a good six-figure sum. Whilst he seemed to appreciate the risk he was taking, I had serious doubts. He had no clear idea of the returns achieved and not kept any good records. For all I know he may be a genius investor (unlikely) but my suspicion is that his approach was born out of an understandable mistrust and fear of being ripped off, yet in practice he was (and is) in serious problems should his two shares take a turn for the worse. The main winners will be HMRC as he has not used any capital gains tax or ISA allowances over the last 20 years (use it or lose it).

DIY is spending time to save money, yours.

DIY investing is not something to be undertaken lightly. I am learning new stuff almost each day and I’ve been doing this for over 20 years. Frankly, any professional skill can be learned by most people. Yes I could even learn to be a brain surgeon… but do I want to? am I actually playing to my natural interests and skills? if time is short, why would I waste it learning about stuff an expert can do for me? (and with whom I have a professional relationship). I tend to find people tend to fall in one of two camps – spend time to save money, or spend money to save time. DIY investors are the former (by doing it themselves) but beware it takes a lot of time, whereas you could focus on the things that actually improve your employed skills and therefore your income, or simply spending time on doing the things you love. Oh and Money Box – “ad valorem” is a fee based on the value of a portfolio, in short a percentage. There is definitely a need and place for DIY investing, but check where you are really coming from before you embark on this rather lonely and arduous venture. You don’t want to find that all is lost…

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

Can the Money Box Producer invest £5,000?Dominic2023-12-01T12:38:59+00:00

Moneybox and the Diamond Scam

This week BBC Radio 4 Moneybox featured a story about a diamond scam. This is sadly a rather familiar tale and one that prays on financial naivety. It’s the classic boiler room scam, a cold call from what sounds like a busy dealing floor (though why the sound of lots of people on the phone should suggest something good is rather beyond me). Anyway, the latest revision of this scam is in the form of diamonds… which of course is nothing to do with the stoc kmarket, which to some “investors” has appeal as a possible form of “alternative investment”.

Don’t miss out before its too late! (er… no)

The promise is… yes you had better sit down for the obvious statement “this will provide a guaranteed return of XX%”… which is never true for the investor, no matter who says it. The only guarantee is that there is no such thing as a guarantee. Everything carries risk. However it’s back to that same old phrase – if it’s too good to be true, then it isn’t true. Yet so many people forget this, when placed under pressure… pressure from another person at the end of the phone…which you can hang up… yet our nature is to be nice, friendly, amenable and rarely do people like to say “no”…. well a lot of people (it is alleged).

The carat carrot… what’s up doc?

Back to the scam – the diamonds may not even exist, you haven’t seen them, and so there is only a verbal suggestion of their value (even if this were a written valuation, it should be treated with caution). The price of the diamonds is naturally inflated, by an estimated 1500% and the broker/trader… oh lets call a spade a spade… criminal, takes a 25% commission cut… which is the only guarantee. Now of course, it’s wrong that anyone gets taken in by these criminals, but it is particularly concerning that they target the elderly, who are more vulnerable.

New tales, old tricks

How is this different from the penny shares sold by the Wolf of Wall Street? Well, it’s not much different, the process and tactics are very similar – selling much overpriced things to over optimistic “investors” who will never recoup their investment. This isn’t investment, its basically stealing… not to mention that there are serious issues about conflict diamonds, as highlighted in the 2006 movie “Blood Diamond”.

The question behind the action

Of course building a diversified portfolio is sensible, so that your wealth is not exposed entirely to the stock market. Hence why when we create a portfolio it has a variety of different “asset classes” within it, including cash, alternatives and potentially a wide range of different sorts of investments. So I have every sympathy with someone trying to diversify their portfolio – a good adviser will do this. Oh and by the way, it was a financial adviser that raised the alarm about the scam to the victim (not the media, not “the internet” , not the bank, not the best friend and not the regulator)… I’m feeling a little sanguine as the obligatory levies that advisers pay to regulators in their various forms (FCA, FOS, FSCS) have increased a staggering 300%… and frankly that feels like a very big scam.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

Moneybox and the Diamond ScamDominic2023-12-01T12:38:49+00:00

That old sales technique…

We’re not selling, we offer an opportunity to buy… eh?

I had to laugh, sorry. I was listening to an item on Radio 4 about how temporary workers are being sold insurance that they either don’t need or won’t pay out. Now we’ve all heard this stuff before… PPI springs to mind for starters. I admit that I know nothing about this sort of insurance (accident cover, for temporary workers) but of course I do have a pretty good handle on financial protection. Anyway I was amused to listen to the defence that to the effect that “it is not being sold…. it is being offered” the “offering” techniques seem to be the same as any sales technique, but I hadn’t heard this excuse before. The important issue being that insurance being sold is a regulated activity and therefore needs proper disclosures etc to meet standards set by the regulator.

Call a spade a spade

Admittedly, I am have witnessed the process reported. Indeed I am reliant upon the information provided by the reporter, but frankly, the way it looks… if it walks like a dog, smells like a dog, barks like a dog, looks like a dog…. it probably is a dog. if not, then I think the regulator is in for some testing times ahead… what would stop all advisers simply saying that they are offering pensions, investments etc… and therefore not selling them (arranging may be a more palatable term). I imagine that the regulator would have something to say and demand compliance and payment of their fees. So I assume and hope that the FCA apply similar logic to those merely making such “offerings” or “opportunities to buy”.

Everyone sells, but there are still lots of grubby sales techniques

It seems that many people don’t like the term “selling” yet we all do it. Yes all of us. Selling is merely persuading someone to make a choice. Ethical or good or “proper” selling is therefore persuading people to make choices to their personal or collective advantage. We all do this a lot of the time as Daniel Pink illustrates so well in his book “To Sell Is Human”. Without actual “selling” nothing much would happen and we certainly wouldn’t have a recognisable economy. However clearly there are many that sell (or try to) unethically. I was disappointed to receive an email this week offering to sell me names, addresses and full contact details of people that may have had PPI “second use PPI hot key leads” . In fact it made me cringe (ok perhaps range)… I can buy (anyone can) 100,000 for £6,500. I don’t buy leads, but of course what arrives in my email box (initially) is open season. If you are anything like me, you are fed up with the banks that sold it and the claims companies that keep texting, emailing or phoning. They are an utter nuisance and ought to be banned.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

That old sales technique…Dominic2023-12-01T12:23:56+00:00