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Deadline December for toxic death bond misselling complaints
| Published: | 7 Nov at 6 PM |
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Expat investors who were mis-sold unregistered EEA Life Settlements Fund bonds have until December to launch complaints.
The Guernsey-based collective investment scheme, composed of traded US life policies, was wrongly marketed as low risk for some years to Europe and Asia-based expats by commission-hungry salesmen. Following the UK Financial Services’ 2011 ban on the sale and marketing to retail investors of such products, a rush of redemptions resulted in the fund’s suspension.
By then, 4,700 investors, many of whom were older expats, had been mis-sold the unregistered product by IFAs touting a net annual return of 8 per cent. An FCA warning that deadlines for submitting mis-selling claims will begin to expire early in December was issued last month, with the watchdog stating that only those who were sold the product by UK-registered FAs would be able to claim.
The regulator’s advice leaves expat victims with nowhere to turn except legal action against their advisor, providing he can be found. EEA Fund Management’s website states that IFAs play a valuable role in advising wealthy clients but offers no help to ordinary expat investors, even after a former chairman of a Hong Kong advisory firm was fined almost a million HK$ for mis-selling the product.
EEA’s advice to those conned by rogue salesmen mirrors that of the FCA, stating that victims of mis-selling should seek redress from the IFA concerned. EEA Investors’ Group spokesperson David Trinkwon predicts elderly investors could well die before being reimbursed, adding that some protest group members have been forced to sell their homes after the loss of their savings.
The EEA life Settlements Fund is just one of many toxic investments regularly sold to unsophisticated older expats in Europe and Asia by unqualified financial salesmen lurking in retirement destinations. Products offered are unregistered and originate from companies in Guernsey and the Isle of Man, with the offshore regulators seemingly unconcerned about expat losses and wrecked lives.
The Guernsey-based collective investment scheme, composed of traded US life policies, was wrongly marketed as low risk for some years to Europe and Asia-based expats by commission-hungry salesmen. Following the UK Financial Services’ 2011 ban on the sale and marketing to retail investors of such products, a rush of redemptions resulted in the fund’s suspension.
By then, 4,700 investors, many of whom were older expats, had been mis-sold the unregistered product by IFAs touting a net annual return of 8 per cent. An FCA warning that deadlines for submitting mis-selling claims will begin to expire early in December was issued last month, with the watchdog stating that only those who were sold the product by UK-registered FAs would be able to claim.
The regulator’s advice leaves expat victims with nowhere to turn except legal action against their advisor, providing he can be found. EEA Fund Management’s website states that IFAs play a valuable role in advising wealthy clients but offers no help to ordinary expat investors, even after a former chairman of a Hong Kong advisory firm was fined almost a million HK$ for mis-selling the product.
EEA’s advice to those conned by rogue salesmen mirrors that of the FCA, stating that victims of mis-selling should seek redress from the IFA concerned. EEA Investors’ Group spokesperson David Trinkwon predicts elderly investors could well die before being reimbursed, adding that some protest group members have been forced to sell their homes after the loss of their savings.
The EEA life Settlements Fund is just one of many toxic investments regularly sold to unsophisticated older expats in Europe and Asia by unqualified financial salesmen lurking in retirement destinations. Products offered are unregistered and originate from companies in Guernsey and the Isle of Man, with the offshore regulators seemingly unconcerned about expat losses and wrecked lives.
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