Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

Storm Financial Group

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Solly said:
"Parliamentary inquiry begins into Storm Financial failure"

"Storm founders Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis are not scheduled to give evidence to any of the hearings."

More here in the Brisbane Times from AAP.
Click to expand...

Why am I not surprised at this news.
I have a distinct feeling that E & J Cassimatis will be loathe to appear in person at ANY enquiry into this disaster and will have to be dragged kicking and screaming first.
 
Grey Ghost said:
Why am I not surprised at this news.
I have a distinct feeling that E & J Cassimatis will be loathe to appear in person at ANY enquiry into this disaster and will have to be dragged kicking and screaming first.
Click to expand...

From the Brisbane times article

The former managing director of the company's Cairns branch, Gus Dalle Cort, is expected to give evidence tomorrow defending Storm's investment model and accusing the Commonwealth Bank of misleading and deceptive conduct.

Storm founders Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis are not scheduled to give evidence to any of the hearings.
Click to expand...

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...to-storm-financial-failure-20090831-f4yh.html

And from an article in Moneymanagement by Lucinda Beaman.

Twelve owners of financial planning businesses acquired by Storm Financial have lodged proof of debt claims with the administrators of the collapsed group.

Ron Jelich, who was one of the public faces of Storm, has lodged the most substantial proof of debt. Jelich is claiming $8 million under his own name and more than $284,000 under Ron Jelich Professional Planning Pty Ltd.

Jelich was Storm’s national development manager and the head of the group’s Redcliffe office. As part of Storm’s recent promotional material, Jelich said his income had tripled since joining Storm.

The second highest amount owing is to Trevor and Kathleen Benson, who are owed $5 million. Gus and Antonella Dalle Cort are owed $2.25 million and $1.8 million respectively. Gus and Antonella Dalle Cort are believed to be the husband and wife team who opened the Cairns office of Storm in late 2007.
Click to expand...

http://www.moneymanagement.com.au/article/Storm-Financial-planners-in-the-red/474639.aspx

gg
 
Ironhalo said:
Max,

I don't know how many more times you need it said to you. I indicated it in my last post, but evidently you just see the words 'SICAG, Ironhalo, Manny' and assume I am dumping a big truckload of manure onto SICAG's efforts.

So I will say it again, and hopefully you read this. 'I applaud SICAG for their work, HOWEVER, there are a number of people who have associated themselves with SICAG who were ex-Storm employees and relatives which only seeks to discredit and tarnish SICAG's good credibility.'

Can you not see why people might be a bit dodgy about the whole thing when Andrew O'Brien's father is on the committee, despite his best intentions? Or you yourself, who have been quoted in the media as being an 'ex-Storm employee?'. Why is this so hard to deny and why can't you answer questions? Why won't SICAG now turn on Manny? He's the one who bled his clients and company dry and left it open for CBA to practically shut down, so why is SICAG so scared of stating so?

Could it be, and hmmmm lets' all put our tinfoil hats on here, that some members of SICAG who worked for Storm are still in some way in contact or friends with Emmanuel Cassimatis?

And no I will not call you, attempting to discuss this matter with you would be as effective as booing at the Special Olympics. I am not discussing this matter with an ex-Storm employee...period.
Click to expand...

It is so frustrating trying to engage with you. I am NOT, NEVER WAS, NEVER WANTED TO BE, NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN LIKELY TO BE an ex-Storm employee. What part of NOT do you not grasp? I suggest you READ my postings instead of "gleaning" (interesting word) over them. Dear oh dear.:banghead:
 
Big Max said:
It is so frustrating trying to engage with you. I am NOT, NEVER WAS, NEVER WANTED TO BE, NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN LIKELY TO BE an ex-Storm employee. What part of NOT do you not grasp? I suggest you READ my postings instead of "gleaning" (interesting word) over them. Dear oh dear.:banghead:
Click to expand...

Max, you are getting a bit emotional and tired.

Save your energies for the Inquiry.

Things are hotting up and the truth will out for the Storm victims.

gg
 
Max
Once again , why the anger , how about directing it towards the perpetrators of the problem, you remember The Evil Banks, the disgracefull, stealing lying fraudulent FPs and how could we forget good old Emmanual and Julie who didn't renew their Domain Name or Web Hosting .

http://cassimatis.com.au/

Now how are all those people who are waiting for the website to be updated going to feel. I thinks Mannys "crusade for justice " maybe on the skids.


Max calm down , chill, fight the bad guys , don't shoot the messenger.

And if the word is so interesting , glean what you want from this.
 
Julia said:
So did you give Storm the right to sign documents on your behalf?
Did you ask for and receive copies of all documentation?
Did you initially receive a written plan explaining how they suggested you invest, what the projected time span of the investment was, what results they suggested would accrue?




I guess this is the bit that blows me away, i.e. that you could be so trusting of something which was clearly unreasonably too good to be true.


Yes, ASIC appear to have received little attention for their inaction thus far.
Hopefully this will be addressed. They are worse than useless for the most part, a waste of tax payer dollars.


All you needed to do was get out a calculator as has been already suggested.
And make sure you were given support documentation for what they claimed would be happening.

Or even, however peculiar such a question might appear to be, ask
"What happens if the market falls significantly, a la 1987????"






Lawyers, like accountants, are not experts in investment.

And it's quite unfair to brand the whole FP industry as being as corrupt as Storm. Some of them are certainly about as useful as **** on a bull, but most of them are not outright corrupt.







Again, we come back to who fudged the figures? No one, to my knowledge, has ever clarified this in all these pages.




A reasonable guess would be because clients signed over all responsibility to Storm so the banks advised Storm rather than the client. So why would you blame the banks if that is what happened, rather than Storm if the latter failed to either pass the warning on to the client, or take appropriate steps to ameliorate the problem?



As above. They are not going to advise clients if their instructions are that Storm is acting 100% on the client's behalf.



The banks were simply protecting their own interests and that of their shareholders, don't you think? They stood to lose money if they did not sell as was apparently their right. They're not a charity. Do you know that they did not give Storm plenty of warning that things were getting close to the edge?
If Storm were really acting on your behalf as they had promised, wouldn't they have been watching the market and preventing your getting a margin call??



This paragraph is essentially a rewording of earlier remarks, harleyquin and the same response applies. I'm sure we are all holding our breath in anticipation of the inquiry's examination of responses by both Storm and the banks.






Nothing wrong with margin loans as a facility. Like anything, though, they can be misused.
Click to expand...
* I don't remember giving storm the right to sign documentation on our behalf and I don't remember them asking us to.
*We didn't ask for all documentation but they usually gave us copies of all paperwork.
* Received a Statement of Advice - someone said on here that they found it easy to understand, we found it difficult to get our head around it. I admit we both loathe reading anything financial or legal and have no interest in doing it. Have learnt our big lesson here and we now have a lawyer who is making a fortune from us as we now take everything to him. I did consider taking the storm SoA to him and I don't know I didn't we do lead a busy life and I blame myself for this-that was certainly my mistake.
* It now blows both of us away to realise how trusting we were. I do think our age group are very trusting, the younger generation are taught from an early age to question everything and I think it's a good thing. Often wish we weren't so trusting but we are, but we are also able to be trusted and we are very honest. We've found out the hard way that EC and JC and their co conspirators, whoever they may be, havent' been honest or trustworthy.
* Someone said the other day on here that storms advice was crap and we swallowed it and the more I think about it there is certainly a lot of truth in that statement. We had no idea that a licensed financial planner could be so dodgy.
*None of us know for sure who fudged the figures, we can only hope that ASIC and the parliamentary inquiry get to the bottom of this because someone certainly did.
*Re Margin call letters, Storm clients who received margin calls in 2001 and 2003 (and I have only checked with one so can't generalise here) say they haven't given storm any extra responsibility since 2003. Other stormies may be able to elaborate on this as we weren't with storm then.
* I do agree wholeheartedly with you Julia that if storm were really acting on our behalf as they promised they would, they would have been watching the market closely and preventing margin calls. This is one aspect of this whole saga which infuriates storm clients we were all watching what was happening to the market and many wanted out and storm wouldn't do it, we were all told to trust storm, and I think even before the crash there were many of us who were so worried that we would have preferred to be out of the market. LVR's for storm clients were allowed to blow out by storm and/or the banks and I don't know why. Someone might be able to enlighten all of us on this also.
* I have spoken to many people in the last six months who agree with you on margin loans - and they have been used successfully for as long as people have been investing apparently. I know little to nothing about them but there are many who swear by them as long as they are not misused.
* I think at the end of the day all ex stormies want to know why things, our supposed safe investments, went so horribly wrong. The financial and emotional destruction to our lives is something that no one could possibly understand unless it happened to them and we are all extremely angry.
* I have really enjoyed hearing the comments for and against, I expected a super blast when I got on here and it hasn't been as bad as I expected, and I'm learning and hopefully something can be put in place so that nobody else ever has the suffer the way we have all had to suffer over the past eight or nine months. Irrespective of whose fault it is or isn't it has been dreadful and once again I say that SICAG has been our lifeline despite what others may or may not think. I will sing their praises forever as we would never have coped as well as we have without their help and support.
 
Harleyquin,

Good post , don't give up , someone on here a few months ago posted an absolutely fantastic few paragraphs about not giving up, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and most importantly look forward and move ahead, i really wish i could have found it again , but in 70 odd pages it became a struggle.

Like everyone on here all i can do is wish you the best, sympathise with your situation and realise that it is a very hard valuable lesson that will certainly help you in the future.

Cheers Darkside
 
Harleyquin said:
* I don't remember giving storm the right to sign documentation on our behalf and I don't remember them asking us to.
*We didn't ask for all documentation but they usually gave us copies of all paperwork.
* Received a Statement of Advice - someone said on here that they found it easy to understand, we found it difficult to get our head around it. I admit we both loathe reading anything financial or legal and have no interest in doing it. Have learnt our big lesson here and we now have a lawyer who is making a fortune from us as we now take everything to him. I did consider taking the storm SoA to him and I don't know I didn't we do lead a busy life and I blame myself for this-that was certainly my mistake.
* It now blows both of us away to realise how trusting we were. I do think our age group are very trusting, the younger generation are taught from an early age to question everything and I think it's a good thing. Often wish we weren't so trusting but we are, but we are also able to be trusted and we are very honest. We've found out the hard way that EC and JC and their co conspirators, whoever they may be, havent' been honest or trustworthy.
* Someone said the other day on here that storms advice was crap and we swallowed it and the more I think about it there is certainly a lot of truth in that statement. We had no idea that a licensed financial planner could be so dodgy.
*None of us know for sure who fudged the figures, we can only hope that ASIC and the parliamentary inquiry get to the bottom of this because someone certainly did.
*Re Margin call letters, Storm clients who received margin calls in 2001 and 2003 (and I have only checked with one so can't generalise here) say they haven't given storm any extra responsibility since 2003. Other stormies may be able to elaborate on this as we weren't with storm then.
* I do agree wholeheartedly with you Julia that if storm were really acting on our behalf as they promised they would, they would have been watching the market closely and preventing margin calls. This is one aspect of this whole saga which infuriates storm clients we were all watching what was happening to the market and many wanted out and storm wouldn't do it, we were all told to trust storm, and I think even before the crash there were many of us who were so worried that we would have preferred to be out of the market. LVR's for storm clients were allowed to blow out by storm and/or the banks and I don't know why. Someone might be able to enlighten all of us on this also.
* I have spoken to many people in the last six months who agree with you on margin loans - and they have been used successfully for as long as people have been investing apparently. I know little to nothing about them but there are many who swear by them as long as they are not misused.
* I think at the end of the day all ex stormies want to know why things, our supposed safe investments, went so horribly wrong. The financial and emotional destruction to our lives is something that no one could possibly understand unless it happened to them and we are all extremely angry.
* I have really enjoyed hearing the comments for and against, I expected a super blast when I got on here and it hasn't been as bad as I expected, and I'm learning and hopefully something can be put in place so that nobody else ever has the suffer the way we have all had to suffer over the past eight or nine months. Irrespective of whose fault it is or isn't it has been dreadful and once again I say that SICAG has been our lifeline despite what others may or may not think. I will sing their praises forever as we would never have coped as well as we have without their help and support.
Click to expand...

Harleyquin, well stated.....my thoughts exactly...I applaud you and wish you well in your future....hang in there....I plan to be a winner no matter what in the final wash....won't let E & J take anything more from us...so keep your spirit up.
 
Anastasia said:
Harleyquin, well stated.....my thoughts exactly...I applaud you and wish you well in your future....hang in there....I plan to be a winner no matter what in the final wash....won't let E & J take anything more from us...so keep your spirit up.
Click to expand...

Anastasia,

Hang in there, what i said to Harleyquin, applies to you as well.
Hold your head up, keep positive, and yes maintain your spirit.

Darkside.
 
Harleyquin and Anastasia, I totally sympathise with you, and my thoughts and prayers are with you both. I got duped by Storm, never again.

Chin up and fight hard.
 
"Norris declines Storm invitation"


"Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief executive Ralph Norris could be subpoenaed to face a federal parliamentary committee into the collapse of Storm after he declined an invitation to attend a hearing this Friday."

Read more in The Australian Financial Review of Sept 1 2009 by Duncan Hughes.
 
darkside said:
Max
Once again , why the anger , how about directing it towards the perpetrators of the problem, you remember The Evil Banks, the disgracefull, stealing lying fraudulent FPs and how could we forget good old Emmanual and Julie who didn't renew their Domain Name or Web Hosting .

http://cassimatis.com.au/

Now how are all those people who are waiting for the website to be updated going to feel. I thinks Mannys "crusade for justice " maybe on the skids.


Max calm down , chill, fight the bad guys , don't shoot the messenger.

And if the word is so interesting , glean what you want from this.
Click to expand...

Hey Darkside, when you're proven to be wrong, it's polite to apologise and important that you correct the record. I'll say it again . . . not only am I not a former Storm employee, I am not a former Storm client! I am a paid consultant to SICAG. Do the right thing.:nono::nono::nono:
 
Hey Big Max as I don't have the history here most have, can you tell us what the biggest whinge the SICAG members have with Storm?
I get mixed messages it seems to be the Banks are bad and evil, then the advisers are crook. It just doesn't seem to make sense that the whole company was set up to fail.

I see Mr Norris will not appear at the Inquiry the same as E&J. As somebody looking from the outside it's all very confusing.

Maybe we will all have to wait for Channel 9 to produce the 'Moneybelly' series for it all to make sense.
 
Big Max said:
Hey Darkside, when you're proven to be wrong, it's polite to apologise and important that you correct the record. I'll say it again . . . not only am I not a former Storm employee, I am not a former Storm client! I am a paid consultant to SICAG. Do the right thing.:nono::nono::nono:
Click to expand...

I'd love to apologise, but I have nothing to apologise about. As long as you keep trying to paint GG, Bunyip and myself as some kind of SICAG-haters who take delight in seeing Stormer's pain, when all we have done is illustrate concerns a lot of people have with some of the members of SICAG and some of the unsavoury Storm employees who have leapt onto the SICAG bandwagon, then you will continue to get forum posts you don't like. Trust me mate, I'm pretty sure I can speak for the others and say that we aren't the enemy, we're on your side.

And for someone who really is on the periphery of the Storm experience, i.e. not an ex-employee, not a Storm investor, you certainly get apoplectic about anyone being dark over the whole affair and raising even the most basic questions about your 'employer', whom while they have done some excellent work, have sullied themselves to a small degree by allowing the ex-Storm bottomfeeders to board their ship.

If no one in SICAG has a love for Manny, then why hasn't there been ONE post, paragraph or article pertaining to Storm's negligence in all of this on the website? Instead we have a disclaimer practically supporting Storm's bonkers fee structure and vitriol/quotes about the evil of banks. The very banks who ensured that Storm (and vicariously it's clients) did very well for themselves during the good years. People ask why CBA shut the door on Storm practically overnight. Do you really think that Manny was an innocent bystander who was trying to save his clients from financial ruin first and foremost? I don't believe he meant any harm to his clients initially, but when it all went pear-shaped, it very quickly became about 'how many treasure chests we can offload off the sinking ship'. In short, it would appear that the wheels were coming off long before the company imploded as spectacularly as it did.

There is NO mention of Storm's negligence, Manny/Julie's greed or incompetence ANYWHERE on the SICAG website. As an analytical man (and I am sure I am not the lone ranger), I look at that say 'hmmm why would they do that?', as a first impression. It might not be the right impression, but because no one can give me an answer on it, and noting my brother who after receiving some explosive evidence from his bank showing that Emmanuel Cassimiatis ignored a large printed client list of people who had demanded to be sold down, was told by a key SICAG committee member 'that's not going to help our cause', my impression/perception becomes my reality. I won't mention names, because as we say, no names-no court-martials.

Sorry mate, but my family got screwed by Storm, and to see some of the architects of this (and some of the most vocal are the very same people who ignored their phone calls last year when it was all going down) waving the SICAG 'justice' banner and screaming for compensation and 'what's best for the clients', it boils my blood. The banks are 1/3 of this drama, with the other 1/3 resting on the morally corrupt advisers who against their own morals continued to peddle their trusting clients into further financial ruin (ask anyone at your SICAG meetings who got their house mysteriously revalued and their margin loan step-increased right as the GFC had hit); and the other 1/3 rests with a certain couple in Belmont who have barely made a comment since they attempted to take their millions from the business and leave their clients high and dry with nothing but empty promises and platitudes for warmth.

Maxy, I'm sure if this wasn't an anonymous Internet forum you and I would probably have a beer over it and sit there and mull it together like two adults.

*shrugs*
 

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