SCAMS AND GOOD LIARS

TODAY’S BLOG

SCAMS AND GOOD LIARS

Sadly, there are lots of ways to part you from your money. Unfortunately, the criminals are getting ever more sophisticated and we are all accustomed to being so overwhelmed by choice, that we often skip the task of reading the detail or asking more questions.

The problem is that when it comes to your money, you can lose quite a lot of it very quickly. Crooks rely on several things.

JARGON
PRESENTATION
FRUSTRATION
“PROOF”

JARGON

The financial services sector is full of jargon. We also often have multiple names or terms for the same thing – for example stocks, equities and shares are all the same thing. As for Bonds – let’s not even go there

PRESENTATION

In a world of low interest rates, where your hard-earned cash is going backwards in value because of inflation. If prices rise 3% and you only get 1% interest, you are falling behind inflation and the £ in your bank account cannot buy as much as it did. So being offered something that looks and sounds like a decent return, (particularly if it’s on a nice-looking website or advert) well nobody would honestly say you are being greedy. You just want to make your money work harder. However, the adage if it sounds too good to be true…

FRUSTRATION

You are fed up with jargon, bad interest rates and the news regularly reports that millions were wiped off the stock markets. Oddly they never report that millions were wiped on, at best the news may mention the FTSE100 is up by something every 15 minutes, which is utterly pointless. So something that offers “guarantees” or suggests that it has nothing to do with the stock market – perhaps investing in something that sounds green (and good) is likely to appeal to your sense of frustration.

“PROOF”

Having a celebrity promote the “investment” or business opportunity is designed to give it some credibility. After all, celebrities are nice people aren’t they? They have reputations to uphold. Well the truth is that actors are paid to speak words, sports professionals invariably are paid to have words written on them. However nice they may be, they are paid for their promotional work.

How about those reviews from previous customers? Those star ratings? Or industry awards? If you have been around long enough, you will know that whilst these can be true, they are often partially true and sometimes not true at all. As a business owner I am regularly offered awards or encouraged to do something to get them, such as join a trade body that gives the impression of some credibility, when all it really means is that it’s a marketing club

You are a target, nothing more

Scammers prey on those that have money but don’t have the time or perhaps knowledge to think through what it being proposed. They target anyone.

The Good Liar

The new film “The Good Liar” starring Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen, showcases a scammer, a pretty good one. I may have some issues with the speed and ease at which things purport to be done (establishing a Trust, combining the wealth of two people, and an oversized calculator keypad to confirm live payments for sums less than £100m) but the mechanics of a scam are all there.

You can attempt to keep up with scams on the FCA website here: Alternatively, please get in touch, if you have any doubt about what you are being told, it is worth getting us to have a look at it. How much are your life savings worth to you after all?

As for the film, I quite enjoyed it. I may think that popcorn and a drink borders on being a bit of a scam, but the movie is entertaining and just short of 2 hours. Longer than a sports match and more informative. Here is the trailer.

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

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GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

SCAMS AND GOOD LIARSDominic2023-12-01T12:17:06+00:00

The Leisure Seeker

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The Leisure Seeker

Those that are not retired have many rather cliched ideas about retirement. Invariably these involve lots of leisure, cruises, golf and gardening. Most of the retired people I work with often voice that they are busier than ever, its simply that they don’t have to turn up for paid work.

The Leisure Seeker is a gentle movie about the Spencer’s, John (Donald Sutherland) and Ella (Helen Mirren) who decide to take one last once in a lifetime trip together in their recreational vehicle, a leisure cruiser. Their adult children are left confounded at what they perceive to be irresponsibility, given that John is clearly suffering from signs of dementia.

Memory Lane

The couple take a trip down memory lane, with mixed results. Johns dementia creates a scenario where his confusion about who, where and when he is, leads him to expose some deeply buried secrets. He is also paranoid that Ella is having an affair with Dan Coleman, who he believes is the secret motivation for their trip together.

The cruel irony of John’s dementia means that he is not even aware of the loving nature of their trip, a special excursion to Hemingway’s house in Key West, John’s literary hero, of whom he has recounted many insights to his English students throughout his career.

How does it End?

Any good financial planner will inevitably address the question of your life expectancy. All planners work on the basis of attempting to ensure that your money lasts just a little longer than you do. Naturally, this is educated guesswork and requires regular reviews. However, we also need to be mindful of the difficulty of an ending of a life. Simplifying arrangements where sensible to do so, without ruining years of sensible investment strategies and estate planning.

The film exposes the need to discuss these issues with someone trusted, certainly it would make sense for your planner to have an idea or awareness of your intentions, as it would be for your family, though the emotional dynamic of family relationships makes such a conversation problematic and rich material for drama.

The truth is that all of us face an ending, it’s simply a question of how, why and when. Here is the trailer for the film, which being small, is now reaching the end of its run in selective cinemas.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

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The Leisure SeekerDominic2025-01-27T16:07:36+00:00

Should advisers fear being black listed?

There are numerous benefits of social media. One is the ability of peers in any field to discuss topics and share ideas. Sadly this comes with the inevitable double-edged sword of whether to post under your real name or a pseudonym… or “nom de plume”. This I assume is connected to a fear of being black listed.

Of course there’s a lot to disagree about, and it appears that many will take considerable time to vent and click send. Not always a great choice, I’ve been guilty of it myself. There is a general perception, whether explicit or implied that somehow anything critical of those in power will result in some form of retribution. Hence many publish comments under false names for fear of being “black listed”.

Invariably the problem within my own sector is that of fear of the regulator. Of course on the one hand I think this is quite a good thing, advisers ought to be “afraid” of the regulator. That would really mean that they are surely there to keep people on the “straight and narrow”. So I welcome good, strong regulation – it’s in my interests (and yours). The hope is that strong regulation reduces the potential for people to be ripped off.

A critical voice brings change

On occasion, of course some criticism of the regulator is entirely appropriate (after all is anyone or any organisation perfect?). It is this that advisers fear (good ones too). The concern is rather obvious – raising a critical voice may be met with a sudden barrage of requests for information, which can prove time consuming and frankly unnecessary. I take the view that the regulator needs to be held to account and publish under my name. Frankly it is rare that I am critical of them – my main gripe is invariably a difference of approach to the way investors who have suffered scams or mis-selling are compensated following advice from “bad” advisers.

At present, the system is such that “bad” advisers rip off investors. The product, fund, adviser and their PI cover all fail and the remaining “good” advisers pay the compensation. By remaining, I really do mean a diminishing number. At one point there were about 250,000 “financial advisers” today there are about 22,000. Most advisers pass this cost onto their clients. To date, I haven’t despite a 30-day demand for payment increasing by 67% in 2015 on top of a 69% increase in the previous year! Hard to explain and pass on such fee rises in a period of virtually no inflation!

I don’t think I’m being too radical or inflammatory in my industry comments. This isn’t the 1950’s, McCarthyism has not returned (as far as I can tell). On which note, there is a very good new film out called Trumbo – the true story of a man that was blacklisted by some very unsavoury people in Hollywood. Trumbo was forced to write under a pseudonym to allow him to earn a living and he wasn’t ripping anyone off. I’m not so sure that advisers publishing under pseudonyms is really the same thing at all. I wish I had the creative writing skills of Trumbo! I only stand with him in the sense of being free to write or speak without fear of reprisal.

Oh, and you are welcome to check out my industry comments online at places like New Model Adviser, Financial Adviser, Professional Adviser.. but they are pretty dull and aimed at advisers.

Here is the trailer for Trumbo, you may recognise Bryan Cranston (who plays Walter White in Breaking Bad) and Helen Mirren has a small role, but has you piping venom… well it did for me. It has only just been released here in the UK… its one of the few films that I gave 10/10… but of course I may have been influenced by issues raised here!

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

Should advisers fear being black listed?Dominic2025-01-27T16:38:36+00:00