| Generali |
| Generali Generali pay ALL commission to IFAs upfront: BEWARE Hong Kong, China |
| 17th of Jun, 2011 by User459792 |
I had a very unpleasant and costly experience with De Vere Group Financial Planners which was made possible and all the worse by the Generali Bond that they missold to me. What was NOT made clear to me by Generali or De Veres is that ALL commission on the bond is payable upfront to the advisor selling you the product which means that I am now locked into a very expensive and unsuitable product. This goes a long way to explaining why I never heard from the De Vere group again after signing despite promises of regular updates and meetings. For an unscrupulous company like De Vere this type of product is a God send. This means that if you wish to transfer the management of the product to any other financial advisor as I did when De Vere left me high and dry they will have to charge you for managing it. It also means that if you wish to exit early the fees are astronomical as ALL commission that was paid upfront to your IFA is included in the exit fee..ironic really!!!! Generali products are expensive anyway. Their fees are way in excess of other comparable products available through other companies and when asked why they do this and how it served me, the client, I recieved no reply.
I can only assume that they, like De Veres just want your money without providing service and this is a great incentive and temptation to unscrupulous IFA like De Veres and it can only serve to encourage bad practice within the field of IFA. When I told Generali about the misspelling of their product to me and the lies told to me by De Vere regarding the fee structure they did nothing and still do business with the De Vere Groupspeaks volumes!!!! Incidentally, I know this story makes me sound very naive however I did ask pertinent questions regarding the fee structure when considering the product as in the literature it seemed excessive and expensive however I believed what De Veres told me about how that worked which turned out to be a pack of lies. This experience has cost me dearly and I would like to think that this will save others from that experience where De Veres or Generali are concerned. |
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I was also sold this product by a Devere representative. He basically talked it up and told me what I needed to hear. Everything he said was designed to get to the sale, whether about the supposed benefits of the product or about his own alleged financial background that supposedly qualified him to be an "independent financial adviser". (Turned out he even lied about his background, apart from lying about being an independent financial adviser, of course.) Devere plays a great game by recruiting salesmen (or training recruits as salesmen) who will pose as "IFAs". They learn a clever sales pitch dressed up to sound a like what a genuine UK-regulated IFA would say (using words like "fact find", "independent", "search the whole market", etc.), draw in British expats who are lulled into a false sense of security because they believe they're dealing with a properly qualified expert (or "IFA") and persuade them into a small selection of very expensive and commission-heavy investments which are only "good" in the sense that they generate huge commissions for Devere (with a small percentage to the salesman) and huge payoffs (fees, penalties, etc.) for the investment companies.
There's a useful post here (http://devere-group.pissedconsumer.com/de-vere-group-regulation-20110610242434/1.html) about where to direct complaints:
"deVere are Regulated by the FSA in England, and as such have to abide by the regulations stipulated by FSA. This they are clever at doing, but their days are numbered as they are factually speaking the most complained about Financial Services Company in the world. My suggestion is to Contact the Life Assurance Company of the plan they have put you in, and make a formal complaint to their Compliance dept detailing the miss-selling technique used in drawing you in. The Plan Provider (Generali/Friends Provident etc etc are ALL much bigger than deVere and will very soon withdraw their Agency agreements with deVere as their reputations are being damaged further by the day by this Agent. You should also contact the Compliance Dept of deVere, requesting direct contact details from your 'Consultant', as Compliance officers are highly regulated and have to abide by the regualtory rules set out in the juristiction they operate in, otherwise they will lose any chanve of pursuing their personal careers.
The more complaints made to the Assurance Policy providers that deVere have Agency agreements with, the more damage you will do to the Company. deVere see this coming, as they have apparently now launched a 'Regular Savings Plan' via their Trading Platform, which is according to readily available research, a disfunctional, expensive and miss-sold piece of rubbish they are unable to support.
I could write a story here about the Company in question but do n ot have the time. In brief, anybody with a grievance should contact:
A Regulator
A Product Provider
The Compliance Dept of deVere
The Compliance Dept of the Product Provider
The Press
A Lawyer
One or more of the above, and even better ALL the above
I wish every one in the world who has had the mis-fortune of having any association with this Company my sympathy and the best of luck in re-couping your loses.
Good luck" |
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the devere scam is common for ALL expats. if you do get a call from these con artists ask these very simples questions:
1. The name of who past on your details - and then call him to ask about opinions
2. Can they send you the details of the IFA via email - including his background
3. What are the comissions - have this written down
Then you will realise why these goons are not to be trusted. |
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