Storm Financial exposure list

[scratchthecat]

Scratchthecat, Good luck.

Don't want to contaminate this thread, but could you on the other thread give a brief outline of how clients stand legally?

Would Storm have had sufficient professional indemnity insurance to cover losses?

Can you comment on the allegations that loan applications contained inflated property valuations and income levels?

Julia

I'm not willing to get into how other individuals stand, it's complicated and unique for everyone so I'd just say to get your own advice and talk to others to see what they have been advised.

We are not going down the class action route, we are claiming against their PI for failing to manage our portfolio according to their statement of service. Our advice from two different legal firms (NOT the ones who advertise on highway billboards!) was that this was the best option for us. It did not cost much to have these two meetings to outline our situation and get guidance and really helped us to clarify our plan.

We are original clients from the days of Cassimatis Securities and had the same advisor (Mr S.D. - Director) for over 10 years. We have no experience with the dodgy dealings that have been reported. We don't read any news articles or forum postings that talk about the "gold plated loos" as facts clearly aren't high on their journalistic radar.

 

[Smiley]

I know SD and all the advisers and people who have worked at Storm for years. Plenty of dodgy dealings and Storm Investors Consumer Action Group is the way to go to recoup a sense of empowerment - meeting in Townsville next week. If not keep believing in them . . . perhaps they will resurrect through Ignite and the faithful can get more "financial planning".

 

[sqwark7600]

A word of warning. The enemy also trolls these threads. Be careful.
:badsmile:

 

[rory4]

16)
PT - Townsville
Thank you for starting this thread. I am a former client of Storm and have been reading the blogs for the last two weeks. I honestly feel that since July I was being lied to about my true financial position and as many others have said, I was encouraged to believe that everything was fine. I am fortunate not to have leveraged my house as a number of my friends and colleagues have but have lost every ounce of savings we have put in over the last three years. In October I telephoned my storm adviser and asked to be sold down and have my margin facility closed. I was talked out of it and was told that if I just converted my equities to cash then I could buy back in when things started to pick up (I stupidly did not take notes of the conversation and only have my word to go on). I now believe that advice was to ensure that I remained a revenue stream for storm and the banks at some point in the future rather than in my interests.

My last statement (june to sept qtr) that I received from my margin lender (Macquarie) showed that my lvr was 78% with a maximum gearing level of 82%. From October until mid December i never received a phone call from Storm or Macquarie Bank telling me I was in Margin call. I did receive 2 calls from Storm during that time asking me to put more money into my CMT to improve my buffer which I stupidly assumed to be at an lvr less than 82%. When things started to hit the media with storm, I phoned again to be told that I could not be fitted in for an appointment before christmas and that someone would phone me back. I was not phoned back. I phoned storm again on Jan 5 and was informed by my adviser that I was in a positive equity position and that my lvr was 94% -94%!!! The furphy here was that in comparison to my margin loan I was in a positive equity position, however they conveniently skipped over the fact that this did not include the additional investment loan from anz that I was recommended to also take out. I knew this immediately but there are so many clients who would not have realised that the advice provided to them regarding their equity positions would not have taken into account the money they borrowed against their home.

I have two friends who had been advised to borrow against their homes. In August and September, my friends had been contacted by Storm and told that their homes had been revalued higher and they should immediately access the extra equity and invest in the market. Both of them questioned this advice and were told it was a "sound investment decision - Storm wouldn't be encouraging this if it wasn't etc etc". In hindsight, they both feel it was encouraged purely for the purpose of raking out another 7.5% in desperately needed fees. The information provided at the creditors meeting regarding the revenue downturn would pretty much verify this. The amounts they were asked to further leverage were around the $100k mark. ex storm employees reading this may be able to confirm their suspicions also.

As to my latest position - I've contacted Macquarie bank on 15 jan to immediately close my margin loan and redeem all managed funds that still remain invested. As of today, the facility still has not been closed. I've contacted the bank a number of times and also sent a letter of complaint to them about the delay. They have refused to waive my break fee and have told me that my funds would be redeemed at the unit price on the day they eventually get around to actioning my request, not as at the day (or even the day after) i requested the closure. And of course, the market has fallen since then.......

I am yet to get a response to my letter of complaint (it was sent this morning however by email so wouldn't expect one so rapidly given their response times on routine requests).

I also asked the question to the young fella on the phone as to how I would be allowed to have an lvr at 94% without receiving a margin call when my max gearing level as stated on my last statement with the bank was 82%. I didn't really get a coherent response - or at least one i could understand, and up until this situation I did not consider myself to be a stupid person...... Has anybody else checked their latest statements from Macquarie and is in the same situation?? Can anyone explain this to me?? I asked the same question to an FPA appointed FP yesterday and he was equally puzzled.

That's my story, I am absolutely certain that anyone who is not in a negative equity position with storm would be very close to a zero equity position - absolutely nothing to show for years and years of money constantly invested and their concerns constantly glossed over..... I would appreciate any advice from anyone who is in a similar position to me about what they think is the best course of action.

I'm looking forward to the Townsville meeting next week.....

 

[Julia]

16)
PT - Townsville

As to my latest position - I've contacted Macquarie bank on 15 jan to immediately close my margin loan and redeem all managed funds that still remain invested.

Did you do this in writing, clearly dated?

As of today, the facility still has not been closed. I've contacted the bank a number of times and also sent a letter of complaint to them about the delay. They have refused to waive my break fee and have told me that my funds would be redeemed at the unit price on the day they eventually get around to actioning my request, not as at the day (or even the day after) i requested the closure. And of course, the market has fallen since then.......

That doesn't sound reasonable. On that basis a loan provider could leave your letter lying around for months. Can someone else comment as to whether this is normal practice?
Not waiving the break fee doesn't seem unreasonable, though from the bank's point of view at least.

I also asked the question to the young fella on the phone as to how I would be allowed to have an lvr at 94% without receiving a margin call when my max gearing level as stated on my last statement with the bank was 82%. I didn't really get a coherent response - or at least one i could understand, and up until this situation I did not consider myself to be a stupid person...... Has anybody else checked their latest statements from Macquarie and is in the same situation?? Can anyone explain this to me?? I asked the same question to an FPA appointed FP yesterday and he was equally puzzled.

So what was the course of action suggested by your FPA appointed FP?


Mods, maybe move this to the general Storm thread?

 

[stung]

Add me to the list.

I know a client who submitted a 'Stop Loss' form and hand delivered it to the Storm Brisbane office. When the instructions were not followed he was told by his advisor that they did not cash the client out because they lost the form. Having read all the stories about how they discouraged every one from cashing out I have to wonder whether the form was lost or perhaps just filed in the bin.

 

[maccka]

Storm Investor Consumer Action Group (SICAG)

Just thought you might be interested to know that the Storm Investor Consumer Action Group (SICAG) are starting to get up and running and have started to put together a website (not quite finished but starting to look very good).

http://stormfinancial.info/index.htm

They are holding a meeting in Townsville next Wednesday night.

Details about the meeting can be found here.

http://stormfinancial.info/index_files/Page716.htm

The e-mail contact for the NQ chapter of the group is sicag_tsv@live.com.au


Hope this helps you. Good luck.

 

[Mash]

SICAG looking at meetings in Rocky (24th Feb) Mackay & Cairns. Need numbers to make sure it happens.Please register interest on sicag pleaase.