The FA of Fantasy Funds for Footballers

Dominic Thomas
Sept 2025 • 3 min read

The FA of Fantasy Funds for Footballers

I wonder if you know a professional footballer? Or perhaps you are one. Our offices are located opposite the Chelsea training ground in Cobham. As the season starts and the all important transfer window closes, a lot of money has changed hands (we have seen a new British record payment for a player – £125m for Alexander Isak) with over £3bn spent by the Premier League.

Professional footballers tend to be young, and with the odd exception like James Milner, most end their playing careers by age 35. Some go on to become pundits and coaches, occasionally a Manager.

Sadly, where there is money, there is corruption and I am sorry to report that football is no different. There are a significant number of Agents and villains all set to relieve the player of his money and of course there is plenty of pressure on players off the pitch to simply keep up the appearance of success.

Just like anyone else, young players (and old ones) are not sure who to trust when it comes their finances. Many have been ruined by bad advice or downright fraud. There are advisers who ‘specialise’ in providing advice to players, but this guarantees nothing, and if anything is probably a red flag. Many have lost millions of pounds in investment schemes that they didn’t understand and should never have been exposed to. They were young and not sophisticated investors (most people aren’t) and they have been scammed time and time again.

This isn’t new information, it’s been going on for years, but there is a new documentary on the BBC – which you can see on iPlayer as well – called The Story of the V11. Players get all sorts of abuse from the stands and in the media, but there is and has been a great deal of financial abuse. It is utterly disgraceful and inexcusable. Many of the players involved have lost everything (including their lives due to the perceived shame and resulting suicide). It is desperately sad and could have been avoided.

The main problem that most professional players face is a high income (which is taxed at 45%) and a celebrity lifestyle alongside little if any financial knowledge. So when you see vast sums of tax being taken from your payslip, it’s entirely understandable to ask the question: what can I do to reduce it? (as we all do). Footballers have a short career but usually a very normal life expectancy. However, there are firms of financial advisers that will always attempt to carve out a niche market and claim that they know what makes everyone in that niche tick … then they seek endorsement from others who are well known in the niche and who (by virtue of experience) imply that their recommendations can be trusted.

The reality is of course that everyone is different, we may share lots of similarities, but we are all different. The common ground we share is attempting to secure our own future for when we get sick and are unable to work or decide to retire and stop earning.

The only thing these players did wrong was to trust the wrong person, who financially abused them and sold them investments that were and are… a load of rubbish. The advisers concerned sold utterly awful ‘investments’ (honestly, they cannot really be called investments). The advisers earned huge commissions and pretended that the tax-incentivised schemes (film partnerships) were backed by the Government and were risk-free.

It is a desperately sad tale and I hope that they get justice and the ‘advisers’ concerned all go to prison. They have caused misery and hardship and all the ingredients for a painful existence. When people are victim to these sorts of fraud they often feel stupid; they are not; they were ripped off and taken advantage of by criminals and fraudsters under the guise of being a qualified financial adviser.

Your financial plan does not need to involve complex investments, irrespective of your level of wealth. Investing doesn’t need to be complicated; it’s about owning a diversified portfolio of real businesses that produce income from the profits they make. Some businesses fail, but owning them all in the way our clients do, means the risk is minimal – barring a world ending catastrophic event (at which point none of us will be worried about money).

A good financial plan reflects your aspirations; a great one expresses your values and is reviewed regularly and importantly, you should be able to see the valuation of your portfolio and have it verified by various properly regulated entities.

So, you may not be a footballer, but the issues are the same – trusting the person that is advising you about your money, which is your future. If you know a footballer (I spot many in the Cobham area) or someone who needs our help in providing impartial, transparent advice with clear fees and clear communications, by spreading the word about us you may not be simply saving them money, but perhaps saving their life.

It is my opinion that currently, the legal system, tax system and regulatory framework have all failed to help these players and it is a disgrace – another one.

Get in touch to find out more, share this with a friend.

Here is the link to the BBC documentary: Footballs Financial Shame

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The FA of Fantasy Funds for FootballersJemima Thomas2025-09-05T11:27:28+01:00

Have you been scammed?

Dominic Thomas
Sept 2024 • 2 min read

Have you been scammed?

According to a recent report for LV, roughly one in seven adults have been the subject of an attempted pension scam in the last 12 months! That’s an enormous number, translating into about 7.3 million people.

A staggering 14% were encouraged to transfer money from their pensions by text message. It may interest you to note that about 4 million British adults lost money to such scams over the same period. That is an awful lot and begs the question – are the regulators really focussing on the right things?

Pensions are both simple and complex. Simple in the sense that they are a savings plan that you access to provide income in your retirement. Ideally this needs to last for the remainder of your lifetime, which then presents the inevitable question “how much is enough?” which of course is subjective and dependant on your expectations and lifestyle.

Pension rules are ludicrously complicated, made by successive Governments, each of which has been utterly lacking any long-term thinking. Complexity is perhaps a double-edged sword. Most people know enough to realise that they probably need advice, but the cost of this is prohibitive. A lot of the cost is due to regulation, but in fairness most of the regulation is well intended.

A problem we all face is that scammers are getting better. Deepfake technology makes a decent scam difficult to spot. It is relatively easy to set up an email, phone number and website that all look perfectly legitimate. Something like 36% of scams were reported as fake HMRC emails and text messages.

Regulators, pension companies and advisers would all likely say the same thing – please seek advice. The scam rate amongst regulated advisers is very low (contrary to press-driven opinion). The majority of scams take place through the everyday technology you use at home. If you come across friends or family who you suspect may be about to make a catastrophic blunder, please (please!) get them to call us. Certainly not everyone is going to be a suitable client for us, but if we can save someone from self-destruction, we are happy to take calls or emails.

Don’t wait for a friend to get scammed, get them in touch with us, so that we can ensure that they don’t get caught out.

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Have you been scammed?Jemima Thomas2025-01-21T15:19:59+00:00

Are you falling in love with a scammer?

Jemima Thomas
June 2024 • 3 min read

Romance scams – preying on the kind hearted

I apologise if I’m becoming the bi-monthly agony Aunt in reminding you about the importance of financial trust in romantic relationships; but being able to trust your partner in any relationship is imperative. It’s also important to remind those of you who are single, divorced or widowed that it is vital that you’re not taken advantage of when establishing a new relationship.

We know that you, our clients, trust our advice and expertise, which is why we’d like to think that if any significant financial decisions needed to be made – you’d get in touch with us.

Unfortunately, preying on the kind-hearted isn’t at all unusual in the landscape of financial scams and fraud. We hope that all our clients would call us if you were getting a ‘gut feeling’ when something doesn’t seem or ‘feel’ quite right. We are here to reassure you on things and to flag up anything out of the ordinary to prevent you coming to any ‘financial harm’.

Lloyds Bank research shows that the number of people falling for so-called ‘romance scams’ rose by over 22% in 2023 (on the previous year). The statistics revealed that men and women aged 55-64 were the most likely group to be tricked by “fraudsters masquerading as love interests”. However, it is 65-74 year olds who lose the most money in these scams, giving away an average of over £13,000.

The fraud prevention director at Lloyds Bank, Liz Ziegler, weighs in:

“Targeting those looking for love is a cruel, but sadly common, way for fraudsters to cash in. Scammers can be incredibly convincing and leave their victims both emotionally and financially drained’’.

I appreciate that this is a delicate topic; some people loathe to talk about such personal circumstances with their financial adviser, but your relationships intertwine with your finances and we are very honoured that our clients are willing to share these details with us. Rest assured – like a close friend or a doctor – your stories and questions will always be confidential and received without judgement.

On the same note, I would like to remind all of you about the importance of both parties (if in a couple) attending initial or annual review meetings with either Dominic or Daniel. It is crucial that nothing is ‘lost in translation’, and this way we can ensure that we keep everyone as included as possible. For us, it is all about transparency and clarity for each and every one of you.

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Are you falling in love with a scammer?Jemima Thomas2025-01-21T15:41:28+00:00

The Cold Shoulder?

Daniel Liddicott
May 2023 • 3 min read

Call me (or rather, don’t)

Public service announcement: News broke yesterday of the Government’s plan to ban all cold calling related to the sale of financial products. This measure was already in place on any sales cold calling related to pension products, however the government is now due to extend the ban to cover any unsolicited calls of this kind.

The idea is that when this measure is put into place, anyone receiving an unexpected sales call regarding anything from insurance to investments will know that the call is not genuine and is indeed an attempted scam.

You might say that this is a case of better late than never. The government stated that “fraud costs the UK nearly £7bn per year”. Financial scams have the potential to be hugely damaging and significantly life-changing.

Back in our Spring 2021 edition of Spotlight, we published an article about Emmeline Hartley, who was happy to share her story of being the victim of such a scam (see page 10!).

So, in light of this, you can rest assured that should you receive a cold call of this nature, hanging up the phone immediately is a perfectly justified course of action. Or should you have the time and inclination, you could take the would-be fraudster on a wild goose chase for the details that they will never obtain from you. Or you could try putting them on hold. Just a couple of ideas.

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The Cold Shoulder?Jemima Thomas2025-01-21T15:39:12+00:00

Who do you trust?

Dominic Thomas
Jan 2023 • 5 min read

Who do you trust?

To my mind we have always lived in a world of false information. Stories and myths, urban legend all exist to serve someone’s perspective. Since the days of modern ‘propaganda’, we have been warned of careless talk and the enemy around the corner. In the last few years, largely though not exclusively due to the arrival of the internet, facts and mis- or rather disinformation coexist. We have to decipher and frankly that is not as easy as it should be. Most conspiracy theories contain an atom of something that seems to be plausible, but is then expanded and extracted.

This week we have witnessed more political folly as Government attempts to reign in some of its own that have crossed the line of reason. When we see extremity we tend to regard things as ‘obvious’.

I present Richard Rufus, former Premier League defender for Charlton Athletic, indeed in 2005 he was voted “Charlton’s greatest ever defender”. Like many a sports celebrity and Premier League player, he was well remunerated. High profiles and substantial income in our current culture, come hand in hand with an expensive lifestyle and costly habits.

After a career in football, many players struggle to adapt to life outside of the spotlight and without the same financial rewards. Few are able to continue to earn anything like their player wages. Whatever the reasons, like many players, celebrities and frankly most people, Mr Rufus appears to have spent most, if not all of his income. Whatever savings he had were clearly not sufficient to support his lavish lifestyle, which he was unwilling to relinquish.

A lavish lifestyle provides the appearance of financial success, but what is visible is largely immaterial. I’m often struck by how many people have a car that costs north of £60,000 yet have very little savings; who spend on cars and holidays more than they save for their future … but I digress!

Mr Rufus turned his hand to financial scamming. Not the sort of arms-length, call centre scamming, but the up close, personal relationship, scam your family and friends type of scam. The detail of which can all be found online following the Court’s decision to find him guilty of a £15m fraud which has resulted in a seven year prison sentence. Defender turned offender.

I don’t know Mr Rufus, I have no axe to grind. He wasn’t a financial adviser and reports indicate that the process of the scam was much like the advice you might seek from a friend at the pub … or more likely gastro pub or bistro. The mechanics of the scam involved foreign currency (often the case), no legitimate regulation (also often the case) and persuasion with what the eyes see and what the ears wish to hear. “It clearly works for him, look at his lifestyle”.

The fact is that at the heart of this there are problems that are universal. Firstly, few if any of us wish to reduce our lifestyle, however you define it. Most people are not good at holding onto the money that they earn, inherit or win. Most of us are not good at discerning the cost of a lifestyle either now or in the future. It’s far easier for us to account for how we would spend an imaginary lottery win than how much it will cost us to live as we are for two, three or four decades once we are retired, or frankly what we spend each month now. We are all tempted by the illusion of get rich quick solutions, starting your own business, writing a best- selling book, setting up a social media account where the ‘likes’ are followed by pounds, or of course the next big one, cryptocurrency or whatever you fancy.

The truth is much harsher. It’s a long, slow process, full of setbacks as well as successes. As for advice from friends and family … well I don’t know them, actually scratch that, I do know some of them, you refer them to us … but suffice to say that qualified, regulated, impartial, non-judging, prudent, long-term, evidence-based, evidential advice is likely to be of greater value with no vested interest in whether you holiday in Bournemouth or the Bahamas; Charlton or Cuba.

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Who do you trust?Jemima Thomas2025-01-28T09:56:36+00:00

BANKS HAVE TO DO BETTER FOR FRAUD VICTIMS

TODAY’S BLOG

BANKS MUST DO BETTER FOR FRAUD VICTIMS

The Financial Ombudsman Service, which manages disputes between financial firms and customers, is ruling against banks in 73% of authorised fraud cases, data exclusively obtained by Which? demonstrates. This means if you have been tricked into sending money to a scammer, you may be able to get a refund from your bank.

The biggest banks are signed up to the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code, which is designed so victims of authorised push payment fraud (APP) are treated fairly and consistently when they ask for compensation. If your bank refuses compensation, you can escalate your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

But the number of customer complaints about banks’ handling of authorised fraud – the vast majority of which are APP – landing at the FOS more than doubled in the 2020-21 financial year, from 3,600 to 7,770. And three-quarters (73%) of these were upheld in favour of the customer.

VAST SUMS OF FRAUD – SOMEONE HAS TO PAY

APP fraud – being tricked into transferring money to a fraudster – is fast becoming one of the UK’s biggest frauds. Losses hit £355.3m between January and July, outstripping losses to card fraud. Banks are required to refund you for losses to unauthorised fraud such as card fraud, but not APP fraud. You will have noticed that we ran a couple of items in our client magazine Spotlight about fraud and scams.

The voluntary CRM code was launched in May 2019 and requires signatory banks to provide effective warnings to customers, identifying vulnerable customers and acting quickly when a scam is reported. In return, you are expected to pay attention to take care, have a reasonable basis for believing the payment is genuine, and pay attention to warnings.

Crucially, signatory banks must reimburse customers even if both parties have done nothing wrong. Data shows that many victims have been wrongly denied compensation but haven’t approached the FOS. Escalating a complaint to the FOS is free, and can be done online, but not all victims will be aware of or able to use the service. That’s why Which? wants the government to swiftly take the necessary action to enable the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to introduce mandatory APP fraud reimbursement for all firms using Faster Payments.

If I were a betting man, (which I am not) I would conclude that Banks will find a way to recoup some of their costs from customers, this normally takes the form of higher interest rates or charges on all forms of borrowing. Alternatively, to end the myth of “free banking”. There is no such thing and its about time we all had a grown-up conversation about it.

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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BANKS HAVE TO DO BETTER FOR FRAUD VICTIMSDominic2025-01-21T15:59:33+00:00

ARE YOU BEING SCAMMED?

TODAY’S BLOG

ARE YOU BEING SCAMMED?

OK I admit that I am often sceptical about surveys, the sample sizes are often too small to infer anything of significance. However, in this instance, even if the survey is bogus it is certainly worth reminding you about scams – and something that you can and ought to pass on to your friends.

A survey for Liverpool Victoria (LV) found that about 14% of the adult population (about 7.6m adults) have been hit by a pension scam. Double this number were concerned that they might fall prey to a scam (a pension scam to be precise). Half admitted that scams were hard to spot and around 41% wanted help knowing how to do so and how to prevent being scammed.

WHY TARGET A PENSION?

Aside from your home, your pension is probably your largest or most valuable asset. Scammers know this, they also know that the majority of people don’t know much about pensions, find them very dull and full of jargon. They often don’t realise how much they are worth and rarely treat them as though they are the family heirlooms that they are.

As your adviser (if not yet, then get in touch) I have been explaining the importance and value of your pension for many years. You know that we focus on using the most modern pensions to take advantage of pension freedoms and evidence based low-cost investment strategies. It is your future source of income (or a current one) and may well be something you leave to your beneficiaries.

BEWARE THE FREE LUNCH (REVIEW)

However, for those that do not want an ongoing relationship with their adviser, minimising costs is a significant appeal, having a “free” pension review – well music to their ears rather than any recognition of alarm bells. For most of my working life financial advice has been generally touted as free. It isn’t, it never has been and that is frankly the biggest source of all the problems.

COLD CALLING

A friend of mine, Darren Cooke started a lobby in 2016 to end cold calling. Most advisers joined the movement which resulted in the banning of cold-calling about pensions from 2019. Yet it still happens. It is banned, but there you are.

PENSION LIBERATION

There is no such thing, unless you consider liberating your pension from you a form of liberation – I call it theft. You cannot access your pension before age 55 except for a very, very rare number of instances. Safer to assume you cannot.

Moving your pension to a SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) is absolutely fine BUT only if you are using properly regulated funds within it. Not offshore weird stuff like teak farms or storage boxes, car parks or some other daft “asset” that I can actually set on fire.

NEW FREEDOMS, NEW TEMPTATIONS

Taking your pension is much easier than it used to be. There are new (2015) pension freedoms which have made pensions much better than they were. However, with greater freedom has come greater choice and increased responsibility – yours (and mine). A crook will exploit some basic knowledge (rules have changed) pander to misinformed opinions about stock markets “they are risky and lose you money” and will offer something that sounds altogether better – guarantees, no stock market involvement, high returns -much better than your cash and sometimes money now…. All for free.

Sadly, many do not remember the adage “if its too good to be true, it probably isn’t”, fewer still seek out a financial adviser and if they do, may well be befuddled by what restricted or independent means (invariably a restricted adviser will not mention it, even though they are meant to do so clearly). When a regulated adviser provides advice, he or she is liable for it. I can assure you that we take this very seriously as the liability rather unreasonably, extends beyond the grave.

HANG UP

If you have a friend that you think is being scammed or you are approached yourself, hang up the phone and get in touch with me. I have seen too many people get scammed for one lifetime. A good site to check out is the FCA SCAM SMART site.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

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

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GET IN TOUCH

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

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ARE YOU BEING SCAMMED?Dominic2023-12-01T12:13:05+00:00

SOME DAYS… WARNING TO THOSE RETURNING TO THE NHS

TODAY’S BLOG

SOME DAYS – WARNING TO THOSE RETURNING TO THE NHS

There are days when my heart sinks, today was one of those days. I came across a warning from HMRC about a scam being directed at people returning to work in the NHS to help in the fight against COVID-19. It is always depressing when crooks and lowlifes take advantage of others, but particularly so when they take advantage of those that are trying to quite literally save lives.

I better not add any more as it certainly would not convey a professional image, let’s leave it at “it makes me very angry”. So if you are returning to work in the NHS or know someone that is, please warn them not to sign documents without reading them and to have a look at this notice on the Government website.

Long story short – this is about a tax avoidance scheme, which will not work and likely to financially harm those that participate in it.

The link to the Government notice and website is here.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

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SOME DAYS… WARNING TO THOSE RETURNING TO THE NHSDominic2025-01-21T16:04:35+00:00

THE F-WORD

TODAY’S BLOG

THE F WORD

The F-word in my world is fees. Today we received news that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has increased its “levy” on financial advisers to a whopping £516m which is a hefty increase on the £468m previously.

There are many reasons for the increase, but the main one is that many investors have been duped into moving their pension into a SIPP (a Self-Invested Personal Pension). There is nothing wrong with a SIPP in principle, it is just another pension wrapper and the vast majority are perfectly good, indeed arguably rather brilliant. However, it’s also what is inside.

A SIPP can hold lots of investments, remember in 2005 Gordon Brown opening the way and then back-tracking on allowing people to put a private residence in a SIPP (thank goodness!). The “Self-Invested” bit of the SIPP really is an opening to put anything into a pension that “qualifies”. Anyway, some “advisers” have encouraged people to use all manner of weird investments, everything from storage pods, to teak farms in Thailand, car parking spaces to any hairbrained idea. These are “unregulated” investments – clue on the tin.

The backstop agreement

These investors have a genuine grievance for bad advice. Well… more scamming than advice. Therefore, they can turn to the FSCS, who in turn “approaches” (demands) payment from the rest of us upright advisers to cover the cost of the miscreants that peddle this rubbish. There are about 5,300 adviser firms in the UK, one or two huge ones and the rest are small businesses. The bill is shared between us (feel free to do the sums). In short that means we cannot keep stomaching the lion-share of a bill for which we are not culpable and so it is reflected in our charges to clients. Hardly a fair system, indeed, like others it is miserable and broken.

Look inside

For the record we arrange SIPPS for our clients, with proper SIPP companies and ONLY hold regulated investments within them. You hold properly listed funds which are composed of shares and bonds of great companies of the world.

If you are a client with a SIPP arranged through us, do not panic, all that’s in your pension is good stuff (unless you mucked around with it or “gave the keys” to another adviser). I recently took on a client who has a SIPP, but his adviser put some awful stuff in it. We have been able to unpick some of it, but not all. Totally unnecessary, unhelpful and illiquid.

Cold Calling Ban – Stop them at the gate

As a final note, anyone (you don’t know) that calls or emails you out of the blue is breaking the law – NO COLD CALLING. Some of you helped us with this initiative, started by another decent adviser (Darren Cooke) in Derbyshire and this eventually became law on Wednesday 9th January 2019. So hopefully this will reduce cold calling (I’m not naive enough to assume it will end). Some interesting issues about cold calling, greed, ethnicity and capitalism were raised in the film “Sorry to bother you”.. it went a little off point and lost its potential purpose, well that’s what I thought. Here is the trailer, it raised some interesting questions. WARNING: its rude.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

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GET IN TOUCH

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

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THE F-WORDDominic2023-12-01T12:17:36+00:00

Ocean’s Eight

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Ocean’s Eight

It is an odd thing that we have an affection for certain types of criminals. Those brought to life within a film invariably are the anti-hero. “The Italian Job” or the “Lavender Hill Mob” both hold an almost iconic cultural reference point. Ocean’s Eight is essentially a criminal gang of women, who steal. I’m not sure what the appeal really is, but it is undeniable. Perhaps there is something buried in childhood stories about Robin Hood, which leaves us marvelling the execution of a fantastic plan to outwit and outmanoeuvre authority.

The opening sequences of Oceans Eight may provide some insight. It is perhaps the force of brazen confidence that enable Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) to take advantage of the unsuspecting. Frankly, this sequence ought to be shown to every retail employee as an example of what to observe and I have to admit to being a little concerned that it gives thieves more ideas.

The Double Bluff

Perhaps there is the sense in these films that somehow a balance is being restored in a rather Robin Hood-esque way. I’m sure that there are many examples where this might be the case, but the darker reality is that perhaps, we are all a little enamoured by the criminal mind and but for the consequences, fancy ourselves as a mastermind of bluff and double bluff that has a payoff. Perhaps it intrigues, because we don’t live our lives that way and for good reason.

Where is the promised Cold Calling Ban?

The financial world is full of scams, often by clever people, sometimes just by the downright brazen. As a victim the consequences are very real, having identity stolen or pretty much all your life savings. These are the reasons why we have laws and regulation. Yet it occurs on a massive scale every day. We all need to be vigilant and I am angered by yet further delays to the introduction of the Cold Calling Ban by the Government. I appreciate that Brexit is currently taking resources, but meanwhile criminals are stealing from pension funds and so on. Whilst often we are told “it’s not personal” having your home, bank account or pension fund broken into by a thief feels very personal indeed.

We are complex beings, both victim and perpetrator, but mainly neither. The traditional financial services industry calls this fear and greed, aligning its material accordingly. The job of a fiduciary, such as a financial planner, is to help spot these incidents and to avoid them. There are often not obvious indications and often the best place to hide a lie is in plain sight, between two truths.

As for the new film, I really enjoyed it. I think it is because of the clever planning and skill on display, but actually it probably helps satisfy my darker side. Here is the trailer.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

Email me to get in touch

Ocean’s EightDominic2023-12-01T12:17:59+00:00

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