A few years ago, I was contacted by a financial services company who "specialized in off-shore investments for ex-pats". As it happened, I had some extra money at the time (I had just stopped sending support money to my retired father back in the USA, as he had finally sold his house and didn't need my support anymore), so I began discussions with an agent.

Of course, he gave me the whole sales pitch - retirement planning, saving for the future, yadda yadda yadda. I opened an account with him, having the monthly premiums charged to my credit card (this should have been my first warning - knowing that MasterCard sucks off 3% for every transaction).

After one year, the agent contact me again to review my portfolio. I still had a good feeling and I increased my monthly payments so that I would have more for my retirement.

I guess at this point my "agent" realized that he had reached the limit of what he was going to be able to squeeze out of me, so I didn't hear from him again.

In the middle of last year, I went on-line to check the status of my "plan" and discovered that one of the funds that he had allocated to my portfolio had been closed down due to questionable business practices. I sent my "agent" an e-mail to ask about this but didn't receive a reply.

A few months later, I went on-line again and noticed that the premiums had not been paid for several months because my credit card information had expired and no one bothered to contact me for new information.

And then, early this year, another "agent" contacted me to inform me that my "agent" had left the company and that this new guy would then be taking care of my account. We made an appointment, but then he cancelled it when he realized that he would have to travel from Zürich to Basel to meet me. He wanted to transfer my account to the Basel office ... and that was the last I heard from anyone.

I have written e-mails to the Basel office as well as the Zürich office asking that someone contact me, without any luck.

This prompted me to do a bit more research (yeah, I should have been a lot more diligent before) and find out that there is a whole bunch of forum posts warning about this company and it's business practices.

At the moment, I'm trying to work directly with the insurance company who manages this "plan", but they don't want to talk to end customers - the only thing they offer is that I transfer my account to another agency. Sadly, I have lost all trust in "financial service" agencies and don't want to have anything to do with them anymore. I just hope that there will be some kind of return from all of the money I've paid in so far - from what I've read, it looks like I've just made it over the hump (the first 2 years of premiums are kicked back to the "agent", so I don't start building any equity until the 3rd year), but I'm stuck paying these premiums for a while.

All I can say ... if you are contacted by deVere ... hang up.

Exactly what I did when I was called last week by veneer.

As soon as I heard the company's name, I just simply told them I knew about their reputation, and its no use trying to sell me anything. Call lasted not more than 5 seconds.

I'm sure by now they got so much bad publicity, no one would ever give them their money right?

Remember those guys in Nigeria who have $30 Million that they want your help to get out..?
They still manage to hoodwink people.

Never underestimate greed. or gullibility. or ignorance... usually a combination of all 3.

It makes sense for you to deal directly with the insurer, since your contract is with them, not with the brokerage, though the insurer obviously chooses to transfer a chunk of your money to a brokerage with which it has a contract. Maybe the insurance company would be more willing to cooperate if you started communicating via registered letters and involved the regulator(s). If the insurer is based in Guernsey, there's the Guernsey Financial Services Commission but also the FSA (UK's FSA seeks compensation for missold investors in Guernsey funds). The brokerage has an FSA-approved branch in the UK, so even if you were not advised by that branch, the FSA might still be interested.

When I contacted the insurer to ask how much commission they'd pay the broker from the money I had placed with them, they refused to answer the question, referring me to the broker, who was also unable to answer the question and referred me to his manager, who was unable to give a straight answer. It appeared that the money would disappear into a black hole and the client would be left in limbo, batted between the insurer and the brokerage.

Very good advice. It's good to beware of anyone who approaches with offers of financial advice/investment tips, e.g. by phone, e-mail, expat meet-ups, etc. They can work for other companies or independently. Also be wary of anyone who draws attention to/talks up how honest and professional they are. No honest/professional person needs to do that.

Before you pay anymore, you need to get a proper assessment of this investment! The fact that one of the funds was closed down, the fact that they did not follow up on the missed premiums and furthermore the attitude of the insurance company tells me this is likely to be something to walk away from!

Don't feel under any obligation to continue payments, as I doubt these guys are going to come after you for the premiums.

My gut feeling it is that it is time to draw a line under this experience and move on by getting some good financial advice and build from there.

There's a sucker born every minute, so I trust these worthy folks will never run out of customers

Thanks to everyone who posted their comments about this company. I had a meeting with the Zurich rep last week and again he gave me the big sales speech and talked about the Generali Insurance blah blah and that he was independent, could offer any type of products an had lots of experience etc etc.

I went away and did a little research and found all of the posts on the forum and on other sites. When they called me to arrange a second meeting I told them that I had done some research and seen the negative feedback and didn't want to take this any further. They said fine and that was that. Hopefully won't be hearing from them again.

You could always catch them here: Expat Expo Basel, Sunday 3 June Serve up some loud customer dissatisfaction.

Since I do no tknow the CH laws on consumer protection well enough, you'll have to take what I tell you with the proverbial grain of salt, only.

The GENERALI VISION plan you were signed on with is a major ripp-off. You can read some details on the cost structure here: http://devere-group.pissedconsumer.c...613242974.html

So, the first you have to accept is that if you have just finished the "initial period" as per contract, the value of your money in the plan is exactly ZERO right now. For decision making it is always important to recognize sunk costs as what they are and make your decision on future investments based only on the potential outcome for the newly invested money.
Since there are still ongoing costs in the plan after the initial period and since there are no real tax benefits for you there, I would recommend to cash in your losses and look for other investments instead.

At the same time, if TheBeer is violating consumer protection rights as badly in CH as they are in Germany, you stand a good chance to reclaim your money already "invested" based on mal-practice of the financial advice given. That is one thing you ought to check:
1. are they properly licensed to offer these products to consumers in CH?
2. if not, go to the CH authorities who regulate this and get them involved
3. if yes, check what in CH the law says what kind of information has to be provided and protocolled in the process of financial advice - again I am quite sure that these standards are not adhered to, otherwise you would have seen what you are going for and would not have signed up.
4. then go to the relevant CH authorities who protect consumer rights and get them involved

DO NOT invest any further - this plan is not viable and is really not in your best interest. I can't help you in CH but I am helping a couple of clients in D to go after The-company-that-must-not-be-named to retrieve similarily badly advised and invested money, I am sure there are ways and means in CH to do the same.

Cheerio

+1

I was just cold called on my direct line at work. My number is in my work e-mail signature, but still I'm puzzled as to how they got it (along with my name).

Did not get the name at the begining (sounded like 'Des-ear'), but I did note the number and was suspicious very quickly. So I politely answered the person's questions, refused to sign up for a meeting in Seefeld next week (the caller used the standard telemarketing techniques of asking me what time I'd prefer, rather than if I was interested in a meeting!). I said in any case that I'd like a few more details via e-mail. Gave my work e-mail address and nothing else.

On googling the number (044 389 8282), Local.ch told me that it belonged to "deVere Client Services". Alarm bells started going off. Googled "Devere financial scam" and 15k results came up. Lightbulb moment - searched englishforum.ch for DeVere, and bingo, a number of results including this one.

So I will not be going near them with bargepole. Thanks to all on EF for the warning stories, glad I read them!

Glad to have been of service!

Their cold-calling practice is the worst. Somehow they have managed to get hold of direct lines of work-phones. Whilst mine isn't totally secret, it isn't published.
Last time they called me, I insisted on getting the full name and coordinates of the guy calling me and then served him an order under Swiss Data Protection Laws, requiring full information on my listing and notably the source for my direct phone number (they will usually tell you that the phone numbers are supplied by friends - so I insisted he gave me the name of my "friend" so he is removed from my friends' list). I think that frightened them off as I haven't heard from them for over a year.
They do call our office switchboard, simply asking to speak to Mr. xxxx. The brighter girls on the switchboard have twigged and ask "Who's speaking", "What's the purpose of the call" and it usually gets no further. I think the reputation of d*V*** has been sufficiently ingrained in them.

Great stuff! What's the procedure for doing that?

I second that question - how can we put this into motion? There is nothing I would enjoy more than to spend some of my time to arrange this!!! Anyone?

And the worse thing is, Veneer actually sponsor The Local, who own this forum.

There was a thread on it some time back.

AES International advertises on The Local. It's not clear if it's identical to Devere, but they seem to have a lot in common.

I got cold called by these guys before too, but luckily me being an American seemed to put them off. They tried to get my colleague's info off of me, but I didn't give it up.

/me makes note to self to start answering phone with a cheery "Howdy Y'all!".

Wasn't someone on this forum cold-called by a company called Chase Belgrave? Thread seems to have disappeared.

I have had so many calls from deVere it's not even funny. Each time I tell them calmly that they reduce their credibility each time that they cold call me (to which they responded...."this isn't a cold call as we're not trying to sell anything"...em right....someone needs to find a dictionary methinks!).

They can keep calling me if they like as I will never agree to meet with them and it sometimes provides a wee 5 minute distraction from work

Would be interested to hear about this Swiss Data Protection thing as well though. Always interested in getting a new string to my bow