the times | Saturday December 4 2021 23
News
KEVIN EAST/TRIANGLE NEWSMother nose best Wild ponies in the Quantocks, which became England’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956Britons living abroad claim they have
lost tens of thousands of pounds from
their pensions after being contacted by
financial advisers.
NHS nurses and dentists, employees
of construction and oil companies, as
well as wealthy expats, say they have
seen as much as half their savings dis-
appear after being convinced to take
out investments by deVere Group,
which describes itself as one of the
world’s leading financial institutions.
DeVere’s advisers are alleged to have
tracked down British people living
around the world and then, after
approaching them with cold calls,
offered help with tax planning for the
new country in which they were living.
The savers claim they were then con-
vinced to move their money out of trad-
itional UK savings plans, including the
lucrative NHS pension scheme, and
into investments, including some that
incurred steep charges and undisclosed
commissions for the salesmen. Many
never realised that the investments
were unregulated and could often be
high risk.
In some cases investors were left try-
ing to track down their savings by
following a trail of accounts held in tax
havens, often because their deVere
adviser had become uncontactable.
When the British savers tried to com-
plain they discovered there was little
help from local regulators, and the UK
financial watchdog and independent
ombudsman could not help.
Some clients who tried to pub-
licise their complaints received
“cease and desist” letters from
deVere; others were offered large
confidential settlements.
A group of 40 former custom-
ers have now set up a Facebook
page called “Financial Ruin by
deVere Advisors in all corners of
the world” to air their complaints.
The Times has spoken to others
who are not part of this group, who
raised similar complaints.
DeVere was set up by Nigel Green,
right, a British businessman now living
in Dubai, almost two decades ago. He is
a colourful character who regularly
posts his views about successful busi-
ness management, celebrities and cur-
rent affairs, and routinely promotes
cryptocurrency. Some clients discov-
ered that the investments they were
sold were managed by firms that were
partly owned by Green.
Customers claim they were told they
would receive steady returns and tax
benefits, only to find neither existed.
The advice may have been “mislead-
ing” and “confused”, according to an
expert at the UK advice firm Har-
greaves Lansdown, who reviewed the
advice offered to one deVere customer.
Some of the sales of financial prod-
ucts happened several years ago, but
customers did not discover they had
lost money or faced steep charges until
they approached retirement.
In October The Sunday Times report-
ed the case of Gary Gilligan, who re-
jected an offer of £79,000 from de Vere’s
lawyers made on condition that he did
not speak to the press about his experi-
Expats blame
financial firm
after losing
pension savings
Ali Hussain Chief Money Reporter Case study
D
iane Bentley believes she
has lost half her NHS
pension income after being
persuaded to transfer it into
another scheme by a deVere
adviser.
Bentley, 63, and her husband
Peter, 67, have lived in France
since 2011 and run a caravan and
camping site near the Dordogne.
She was cold-called in late 2013
and claims she was told of the tax
advantages of moving her money
to a qualifying recognised
overseas pension scheme.
The couple transferred about
£150,000 each in spring 2014. By
early 2015 they discovered the
combined value of their
investments had shrunk by about
£17,500. They decided to find
another adviser at this stage.
Mrs Bentley’s pot has grown to
about £190,000 — £40,000 more
than she originally invested. But
this is only enough to give her an
income of £4,000 a year. Had she
stayed in the NHS scheme, she
would have received £8,000 a
year for the rest of her life from
the age of 60. Had she invested
her money in a standard,
balanced pension fund, her pot
could be worth about £249,000
today, according to an estimate
by the wealth manager AJ Bell.ence. Another accepted an offer of
£10,000 to remain anonymous.
DeVere, which has bases in almost
100 jurisdictions globally, sold its US
subsidiary in 2018 after an investigation
by the Securities & Exchange Commis-
sion, which found that advisers were
not disclosing high commissions and
conflicts of interest.
The firm is planning to expand ser-
vices in Britain through a partnership
with Fidelius, another authorised
financial advice firm, to offer “an en-
hanced proposition... to meet the indi-
vidual needs of returning expat clients”,
according to the deVere UK website.
DeVere said that it reviewed all com-
plaints on their merits. It did not wish to
respond to claims made on online
blogs. It said it replied to all clients and
dealt with them fairly by email.
In a previous statement it said: “We
accept during deVere’s 20-year history
some mistakes have been made, which
we have always sought to learn from to
avoid them happening again.
“We have also had great successes
and have always sought to do the right
job for our clients and improve our
service and propositions.”