Beware Financial Advisors on the prowl!
Hello, I am sending this email as a responsible Basel citizen, so please bear with me.

I work for one of the large pharma companies here in Basel and I have been cold called on quite a few occasions by two companies called (name removed) and (name removed), and they describe themselves as Independent financial advisors in the offshore market who help ex-patriots with their long term financial stability, I have been pestered by these guys and have looked into them more closely, they are in fact just salesmen targeting the professional employees of the pharmaceutical industry here in Basel.

Because a lot of professional employees in Basel are considered ex-patriots (people working in a different country than where they were born) they are targeted by these financial salesmen because they qualify for investments in the offshore investment houses. This is all fine but you should be aware that the charges in these investments are very high and these salesmen and women are not qualified to give advice in Switzerland and many not qualified in finance at all. If you sign up with these companies, in five years will they still want to know you? they will have moved on, they have your commission and the funds they have put you in will be very badly managed if at all.

As I say I am a financial professional with a large pharma company and it annoys me when I see people being sucked into these long term, (sometimes 25 year arrangements) with very high and hidden charges to salesmen with no qualifications. I understand, any policies you take with these guys, you pay a monthly premium and for the first 18 to 24 months they take all this money as their charges, hideous charges, which takes care of their commssion. And they do not always tell you this!

So this is just a warning that if you are cold called in your office or at home then be aware of the above and make your choice as an informed consumer. (dont touch them at all)

Please pass this message on to your colleagues so that people are not misled into investment arrangements that may not be suitable to them, as I only know a few people i thought it would be wise to post this to the forum and see if anybody else had any experience with these sharks.
Thanks for your time, feel free to reply if you have had any experience of this

On of my friends in Novartis had a chat with these guys recently. He's just upped his pension payments and was advised by them that he could have done better. He told them to go away.

I was cold called by some of them last year, at the office! They're quite persistent, with the angle that you'd be crazy not to take their advice, "let's just have a meeting" etc. so simply, firmly say - no thanks!

If you want financial advice on wealth management etc., don't wait to be contacted by salesman with a high-pressure, timeshare-like, presentation. - go talk to someone recommended by someone you trust.

I got a call at work last year from someone in the UK. They had all my details and knew who I was, what I did, who I worked for and my office extension, which I had given to no one. They were offering me financial packages to take advantage of my ex-pat status.

I told them already sorted thanks. Bye.

I always go by the if it sounds to good to be true it most definitely is motto.

I had a few calls from these people a month or two ago as well. When I asked where they got my name from they mentioned the name of someone I have never met. I can only assume they go trawling on Linkedin or Facebook. I work for a company that makes software for the Pharma industry and they called me at work.

I'm not on any of those networking websites, although I'd probably stand out in the phone book with my very Anglo-Saxon name, and received a call a few months ago, the silly buggers suggesting that their 'sources' had informed them that I was a 'savvy investor' and 'ambitious' and all manner of other rubbish.

I pointed out that I am a primary school teacher, have no money, and wouldn't invest it, even if I did have any, preferring to line the pockets of local brewers than those of smarmy gits in posh suits.

They never called again.

any way which it could be arranged so that all these muppets meet each other in an expensive bar in town? something along the lines of: sending all your junk mail to the one who sends you the pre-paid return mail envelope.

it would be interesting to here how they get on with each other!

I have heard of a couple of people who whilst working in Dubai enjoying lots of disposable income who did not think twice before signing up to a £1000/mth 25 year "pension" plan. All well and good until they returned to the UK, had to pay tax, mortage etc. and couldn't come close to meeting the payments. Investment cancelled and thousands lost because, as you say, the first many months payments go in commission.

In a similar vein (i.e. financial adviser warnings) I read an interesting article in the caveatfree.com newsletter explaining some of the hidden commissions some adviser take from fund managers without declaring them or even mentioning them to their clients. Definitely a case of conflict of interest where the adviser is rewarded for not moving the clients money from an underperforming fund.

These guys are everywhere ripping people off, i found this thread in Prague,

seems like they set up in each big city where there are lots of expats and try and scam everyone, now they are here in Basel, shouldnt be allowed really, shameful.
http://www.expats.cz/prague/showthread.php?t=204268

Not wishing to name names on an open forum but are any of the guys related to a company that might shall we say defend or protect sovereign heads of state? (PM me if you can't work that one out)

I just had a call from one of these companies today - they called themselves Churchill Investments or something with the same line of me being an expat and would i be interested in hearing about their services. Fortunately i said i was de-registering on Friday from Switzerland.

But again there must be someone 'insider' dealing in giving out personal information within Novartis as no one knows my details at Novartis except anyone who has access to the Company directory of names and has worked out who is an expat from this list........very naughty!

I had a guy from (name removed) come and talk to me on several occasions. He asked me lots of questions and I made the mistake of answering them truthfully. He pretended to make some report and analysis on my situation based on this data but this wasn't really an analysis but simply a repetition of what I had told him typed up neatly (with some factual errors and inconsistencies thrown in). Furthermore, he offered me exactly the same package that he offered to other people in the office despite them being in a totally different situation. So much for tailoring something for me. He assured me that I wouldn't have to pay tax on this and that. When I asked for him to specify and to show me on my tax form exactly what box I could cross off in order not to pay tax on that he didn't know. Yet he was absolutely sure that I didn't need to pay tax. I pushed him on that one a bit and he finally said he has somebody else do his taxes for him. Some financial expert who can't even fill in his own tax form. There were loads of other inconsistencies in what he told me too. He had me fairly hooked at first but the deeper I drilled the more nonsense I got out of him. It turned out, for example, that he had his own money invested in exactly the type of thing he was telling me to get out of.

Yep, had the call from Churchill last week.

I was just approached by a financial consultant from Trafalgar International company. Before I go ahead with the spending time with the, just wanted to know if anyone else has dealt with them in the past. If so, how was the experience?

Last time I looked, Trafalgar International was into mining, minerals,
and generally engineering sort of stuff. Whoever they really are, and
whatever they're selling, it'll all sound wonderful, and you'll
hemorrhage commission payment for years.

Ask 'em to confirm in writing that they're allowed to sell the products
they're trying to sell to you, to Swiss nationals right here in Switzerland.
That can prove quite enlightening.
.

I've seen posts regarding several of the other companies offering financial advice in Switzerland that have a less than stellar reputation. Does anyone have any experience of this company?

Does anyone actually believe that any Financial Advising Company in any country of the World is good and as a result made them a fortune?

People like Warren Buffet seem to know what they're doing.

Financial advice isn't always about trying to make a fortune. it's about efficient allocation of RISK.

I always wonder about Warren Buffet and Birkshire........ becuase it seems to return 20% every year and is made up of investments in trading companies.
I ask myself how many comapnies have a bottom line profit of 20% per annum every year.
Even that doesn't stack up to me.

So did Madoff...................for himself

Look in the Commercial Registry, and you'll find that this company has an entry. The names of the people involved are listed. You could Google their names for clues about their background (e.g. Google their names together with the names of any other companies you might have read feedback about, to see if there's any connection).