02072454429

Devere has even replied to this: http://www.pissedconsumer.com/reviews-by-company/devere-group/spencer-lodge-joins-fund-managers-20130226388038.html Strange, if he no longer works for them. He's apparently now managing director of Fund Advisers: http://fundadvisersdubaispencerlodge.blogspot.be/

"With in excess of US $2 billion of funds under administration and management, Fund Advisers has more than six thousand clients in twenty countries."

Compare:
"With in excess of US $9 billion of funds under administration and management, deVere has more than 70,000 clients in over a hundred countries."
https://www.devere-group.com/

Check the directors of fund advisers - it's easy enough to do via LinkedIn. They are all ex-deVere people

Though Nigel Green claims to have been interviewed by BBC Radio 5 Live, no recording has been uploaded to the deVere YouTube channel, unlike the other BBC interviews with deVere Group(http://www.youtube.com/user/deveregroupchannel/videos), and there's no evidence of the programme on the relevant Radio 5 Live page (http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/5linvestigates). He blogged about this on 12 May, but there's no trace of a relevant programme by Radio 5 Live Investigates around that time, or even in April (5 May programme on ambulance delays, 12 May programme on emergency care pressures, 19 May about school leavers, 28 April included something about fraud against small business, but apparently no interview with Nigel Green).

Here's his blog in full (http://www.nigel-green.com/2013/05/12/my-inte ... one-firms-scam/):

"My interview on BBC Radio 5 Live warning against clone firms scam
May 12, 2013

Following deVere Group’s public championing of the Financial Conduct Authority’s  (FCA) warning against clone firms last week, today I was invited onto BBC Radio 5 Live’s flagship ‘5 Live investigates’ programme to discuss the matter.

I was one of a number of guests, including Action Fraud which investigates this form of crime in the UK, on the show which brought into sharp focus how these clone scams work and the dangers they present to unsuspecting potential clientswho could be duped into handing over huge sums of their life savings into fraudulent investment schemes and, of course, the damage they can do to wholly legitimate companies, such as deVere, which bring the real, tangible benefits of financial planning to tens of thousands of people around the world.

The presenter, Adrian Goldberg, asked me various questions about how we found out that a firm had been set-up to deliberately imply it was part of our highly successful UK brand, how the fraudsters have been trying to take deVere’s identity, and what assistance the authorities have given on this matter.

I told him: “We had clients phoning us who had suspected something was wrong.

“[The fraudsters] copied the website, the logo had been copied as well, business cards were almost identical, email addresses…

“We’ve reported everything [to the authorities].  The regulators are very goodand they do what they can, as do the police, but unfortunately there isn’t enough staff to react and deal with this as I think they need to.”

To my mind, the more we shed light on this problem, the better - and the more the industry, the police and the regulator work together to combat it, the quicker it will be a thing of the past.  And as such, I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to the team at BBC Radio 5 Live for bringing the disturbing issue of clone firms to the attention of their huge national and international listenership.

Nigel Green deVere Group
Blog written 12th May"

Correction: Nigel Green was interviewed on Radio 5 Live Investigates on 12 May on programme about emergency care: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/5linvestigates

60% return in three years, exclusive products, backed by banks.
http://www.nigel-green.com/2013/07/02/60-returns-in-just-three-years/

What could this be?

this company is awful. I just spoked with a friend who has worked for them and left now and they are trying to claim all his money back. seriously. they are lookin to take him to court sayin he has lots of expenses or some crap. don't touch them. they are con men and you'll regret it.

Seems that there are a few issue at the DV office in Cyprus.

http://www.pissedconsumer.com/reviews-by-company/devere-group/devere-group-the-best-in-the-business-20130530413151.html

Anyone got the lowdown on what is happening there?

Google Devere Group Cyprus and see a LinkedIn profile for a DV wealth consultant in Cyprus. Google the name and see a Twitter page, still posting financial info, suggesting that the DV Cyprus office is still in business. There's also a LinkedIn profile for an ex Devere consultant in Cyprus who has moved to Castle Consultancy "a team of British Independent Financial Advisers" (http://castleconsultancy.net/about.html). The website displays a logo saying "An agent of Inter-Alliance Worldnet Insurance Agents and Advisors Ltd". Devere's CEO is listed as a director of Inter-Alliance Worldnet Insurance Agents and Advisors Ltd (http://companycheck.co.uk/director/915038180). Castle Consultancy website dates from January 2012 (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=castleconsultancy.net).

That is funny.

Went through the steps you suggested, and found him. He claims to be a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute but I suspect he may not know that this search facility on the CII website exists for this very purpose. The purpose? To check out who is a member

http://www.cii.co.uk/web/app/membersearch/Mem ... &n=&c=&ch=0&p=0

Mr XXXXXX, where are you?

You are quite right. Mr Green as we know, is the CEO and owner of Devere as well as owning PIC (their Middle East Based arm of the business).
When Devere has to close its doors in a particular market, rather than run away, the "employees" are offered the "opportunity" to stay on in the said territory, working unregulated of course, working at their own brokerage The angle here is that Mr Green also is the owner/CEO/silent majority etc in WorldNet/Interalliance so he still takes a nice cut of the pie.
So Devere is no longer in the danger zone but his employees or ex-employees are encouraged/enticed to stay.
They are offered terms of business with Worldnet/Interalliance, who coincidently offer exactly the same products as Devere but earn higher commissions as a result as its even more off the books than the Devere business.
We all know about the connection with United Asset Management but has anyone looked at KMG Valais as well??
The truth will out.......

Interesting about Worldnet/Interalliance. That makes a lot of sense.

About Valais:
http://vs.powernet.ch/webservices/inet/HRG/HR ... 0&lang=4&sort=0

Name scored out, so nothing more to do with it, apparently.

Same change as with UAM, happened at the same time (around October 2012), though name doesn't show up there any more (http://ow.powernet.ch/webservices/inet/HRG/HR ... 0&lang=4&sort=0).

Perhaps the full truth will eventually be revealed about how clients' money has been invested.

and guess who owns Frontier Holdings???

I wanted to add my bad experience with a similar company in the UK. The company( Platinum Life) specialises in Life Insurance and Wills and they promise new employees or victims the whole world claiming you can earn over a 100 k. What's  even more deceiving is that they put in the contracts of employment that in the 3 weeks training course you will be focusing on your Ce map, whilst mostly for the 2 weeks we were focusing on practising the sale pitch and several other things which were not in our contract and neither was the fact they would deduct all the training course fees out of monthly wages for a course worth absolutely nothing.  Furthermore, they keep promising pre-booked appointments with existing customers which is another one of their deceiving tactics to lure you into their false so called career. My contract was terminated in just under 3 weeks because I accidently did not declare my part time job. They deducted all their training costs out of my salary and left me broke.

My advise to anyone is stay well clear from this company and other similar company offering these kind of opportunities.

Company website says:
"Platinum Life Solutions Limited is an appointed representative of Intrinsic Mortgage Planning Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Intrinsic Mortgage Planning Limited is entered on the FCA register (http://www.fca.org.uk/register/) under reference 440718. Platinum Life Solutions Limited is registered in England, No. 06966258. Registered Office: Reynard House, 37-39 Welford Road, Leicester, LE2 7AD"

FSA factsheet for firms with appointed representatives:
"The AR is your responsibility. You are ultimately accountable for the products they sell and arrange and any advice they give customers. ... Customers of an AR should receive the same fair treatment as at a directly authorised firm."
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/smallfirms/resources/fa ... ointed_reps.pdf
http://wss.fsa.gov.uk/wss/servlet?page=glossary&glossary=A&term=GL1049
http://www.fca.org.uk/firms/being-regulated/m ... nt-of-customers

FCA contact details (includes whistleblowing): http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/contact

Message posted on a UK forum on 27 August 2013, and removed, along with replies, only a few days later (forum presumably received a 'publish at your peril' legal threat):

"A word of warning, avoid the company De Vere Group Financial Services at all costs, we were sold a PIMMS investment by them in June 2008 when we were living in Cyprus. The policy was sold to us as a five year plan, which suited us, as we did not want to tie our money up for a long period as we wanted to keep our options open, and due to our ages at the time. The policy documents took over three months to arrive and it now transpires, that just when we were expecting the investment to end, our money has been locked in for ten years. We are now being hit with a hefty early settlement fee, as well as a 45% drop in our original investment value, as we had based all our financial planning around a five year term. We have tried to sort the issue out with De Vere in London, as we are now residing back in the UK, but they flatly refuse to accept that we were not made aware of all the facts at the time, even though they cannot produce any evidence that we agreed to a ten year term. They have been slow to respond to messages and have had total disregard for our point of view, in fact the stress of dealing with this company over the last three months has been far greater than the stress I endured last year when I was diagnosed with bowel cancer and had to undergo major surgery to remove part of my bowel, followed by complications post op, and not to mention a course of chemo therapy. Hind sight is a wonderful thing, and we wish that we had never heard of De Vere and had never entrusted them with our life savings."

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=192868

I was befriended by a Deveres salesman called Josh in Shanghai in 2008, at the time I was making a good wage and was looking for advice on what to do and how to invest. Josh took me out to expensive clubs and always paid. He advised me that I should enter a Generali vision plan at $1500 per month, this lasted about 6 months and the GFC came, Josh advised me that I should increase to buy into the market while the prices were low which I did, he later advised that I further increased which I did. All up I have invested $83,000 into my generali vision account. I was told that the his company only take around 1.5% of the funds to manage the account and the more that he earned for me the more he and I would make, so a win win situation for both of us. At this time Josh suddenly disappeared and I was told returned to Australia. I was provided with a new advisor who immediately recommended i increase my input of funds and that he would better manage my accounts, i then moved into an unstable work environment and have not added any funds to my account for the past 2 years and will now relocate back to Australia. I had indicated that I would like to close my account 1 year ago but was encouraged by my new advisor to continue on as I could only get back  a total of $59,000 if I closed the account early. I have asked for a detailed explanation of my account for the past 2 years to find out where the other funds have gone. Since my request was made 2 weeks ago to return my funds, I have been told 3 times that I would get a wrap up document for my account. I now find that my advisor is no longer answering my calls. What should I do next,

Write to Generali, its financial services regulator and your regulator. Use Google to find fellow victims. If no luck with Generali and regulators, consider contacting the media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS36OlVCY5s
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/ ... risk-funds.html
http://www.international-adviser.com/news/pro ... t-money-trapped
http://www.international-adviser.com/news/pro ... pended-uam-fund
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpKv7Gk3Kv4

I am afraid you are stuck. First you need to complain to deVere. If this doesn't work then by all means write to the regulator in China but I can't see the CRBC effectively dealing with the matter. The CRBC would be the only regulator with jurisdiction in this matter.

Generali are appalling - affirm who make their money by selling expensively charged policies in countries where there is little or no regulation, or where the regulator is ineffective in discharging their responsibilities.

I am afraid you have been taken in by a smooth, slick sales process.

Following has been posted on International Adviser
An investigation by the South China Morning Post claims to have found that key members of international advisory firm deVere’s Hong Kong based personnel are not licensed.

In the report, published this morning, the SCMP said that as the organisation is licensed by the Hong Kong Confederation of Insurance Brokers, any staff giving advice must also be licensed by the CBI also.

However, the SCMP said five members of deVere’s Hong Kong team, including Matthew Bond, David Hubbard, Tom Rogerson and Jason Ryder as well as area manager and head of Hong Kong operations Edward Rice, are not.

In the article, deVere spokesperson, George Prior, disputed the newspaper’s assertions, explaining that none of the five are client facing and therefore do not require a license.

He is reported to have added that all company representatives are "appropriately qualified and work within the guidelines set by the regulator".

International Adviser has contacted deVere for further comment.

Have a interview with fund advisers tomorrow! Are they just a carbon copy of de vere? Can from linkedin lot if employees have jumped ship!