Storm Financial Group

[Garpal Gumnut]

Thanks for the advice GG so I need to find one with some old decrepid at the desk, no fish and an old outhouse out the back. Sounds like good financial advice. ...and educate yourself so you don't need a financial planner, and look after your own money. I'm taking this all on board, by this time next year I should be half way there I reckon.

Mate , there are very few asf'ers who haven't been taken by some bastard adviser at one time or another.

Welcome to the club.

And your plan is a good one.

Learn the search button. Its all in asf.

gg

 

[Judd]

Thanks for the advice GG so I need to find one with some old decrepid at the desk, no fish and an old outhouse out the back. Sounds like good financial advice. ...and educate yourself so you don't need a financial planner, and look after your own money. I'm taking this all on board, by this time next year I should be half way there I reckon.

Harleyquin,

I assume, for what you have written, that you don't have much money. Nothing shameful about that. However, if you can, just go to a bookstore, go to the personal fiance section and just browse. Buy if you like the book and you have $20-$30 in your pocket. Stay away from stuff you feel is too technical for you. Get some ideas. Go to your local Library and browse. Search the internet, if you come across investment books you, and only you, feel you are interested in, ask the library to get it in for you.

Whatever you decide, get a $10 calculator from your local supermarket and play with some finance numbers and estimates. For profits, halve the result because you're probably being too optimistic. For losses, double them just to be on the safe side.

Just keep on asking question after question until YOU are satisfied. Always ask yourself what is in in for them and how much am I left with. Generally the answer will be a lot and not much.

And keep on kicking those Storm advisers in the nuts. They thoroughly deserve it.

 

[Harleyquin]

Harleyquin,

I assume, for what you have written, that you don't have much money. Nothing shameful about that. However, if you can, just go to a bookstore, go to the personal fiance section and just browse. Buy if you like the book and you have $20-$30 in your pocket. Stay away from stuff you feel is too technical for you. Get some ideas. Go to your local Library and browse. Search the internet, if you come across investment books you, and only you, feel you are interested in, ask the library to get it in for you.

Whatever you decide, get a $10 calculator from your local supermarket and play with some finance numbers and estimates. For profits, halve the result because you're probably being too optimistic. For losses, double them just to be on the safe side.

Just keep on asking question after question until YOU are satisfied. Always ask yourself what is in in for them and how much am I left with. Generally the answer will be a lot and not much.

And keep on kicking those Storm advisers in the nuts. They thoroughly deserve it.

Thanks for the tips Judd. We've got a debt but theres a lot worse off than us we're not wonderful but will survive somehow, after giving them written instructions that we wanted a low risk and balanced investment, just as well we didn't ask for anything too risky. The worst thing we did was trust them. Won't make that mistake again I can tell you. We found out the hard way that there is no such thing as a financial expert. I knew I wasn't one and now know I've got plenty of company. There's fraudulent activity involved here just have to find out how and where and hope it doesn't happen to anyone else.

First thing they should do is scrap the Statement of Advice they give clients to sign and give us a Statement of Advice that they sign guaranteeing their advice, that makes more sense. I intend to try and educate myself so I won't need one. We had saved well and had property and money and maybe had enough to retire on at todays prices but not sure if we had enough to retire on at tomorrows prices, that's the tricky bit. If we could have had enough to succesfully retire on we wouldn't have had to worry about the old age pension but now we don't have a choice, in a couple of years we'll be lining up with the best of them and there's thousands of us now in this position and we are going to cost the government millions.

They'll be paying for our housing, our health costs and the list goes on and on and with inflation it could be billions. It will be cheaper for the government to find out who is responsible and get some sort of compensation for us. Whatever happens life goes on but we have all been financially and emotionally ruined. Most of us are now only surviving because we are living on anti depressants, sleeping tablets and a glass of two of anything alcoholic. Everything I earn now goes on bank interest we'll never even make a dint in the principal and will eventually lose our house, as soon as I give up work we won't be able to afford the interest so we'll have to sell and then we will lose everything. Many others have already lost everything. One day it will be our turn.

Many of us have our names down with Slater and Gordon and if they can successfully negotiate something in our favour we may survive a little easier. I just hope and pray that something positive will happen eventually. If we can ever scrape together enough money to invest it won't be with a planner anyway.

 

[Julia]

We posted at exactly the same time, so I missed your post.

So then, it looks like CGI is trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes with their claim that clients authorised them to deal direct with Storm.

Sooner or later one or the other party is going to produce proof that they're being truthful and the other is a liar.

There was part of Carey Ramm's post a few pages where he quoted the CBA's letter to 60 Minutes which addressed this point.

I don't imagine it's inconceivable that Storm could have provided CGI with fraudulent documentation instructing CGI to advise Storm rather than the client in event of margin call.

I've made my thoughts on storm central very clear and there is mounting evidence that this man EC and close cohorts should be jailed for life

Hope you are not intending to hold your breath waiting for this to happen.
I will be very surprised if Manny or his minions do any jail time at all.

 

[Monario]

Hope you are not intending to hold your breath waiting for this to happen.
I will be very surprised if Manny or his minions do any jail time at all.

I hope your wrong Julia, at the very least I would hope these people are heavily fined sued and stripped of asstes they gained while taking part in near criminal activities, givinf false and misleading advice etc.

I can tell you if these people get away scott free, I will be out to open my own FP business...

 

[bunyip]

Thanks for the advice GG so I need to find one with some old decrepid at the desk, no fish and an old outhouse out the back. Sounds like good financial advice. ...and educate yourself so you don't need a financial planner, and look after your own money. I'm taking this all on board, by this time next year I should be half way there I reckon.

What you need to do is learn the basics of prudent investing so you can do it yourself and don't need to go anywhere near investment advisers.
You said you were good at some things. Well, you weren't always good at them were you? You became good at them only after you gathered information and knowledge and then put it into practice.
Investment is pretty much the same. And believe it or not, the knowledge you need is damned easy to get hold of and is really mostly good old common sense. Best of all, it's pretty simple and you don't require a whole lot of it.

The three main investment areas are cash, real estate, and stocks.

For a method of stock market investment that's simple, profitable, and requires no more than one hour of your time each week, read Post No. 2887 on Page 145 of this thread, and also the next few posts after that.
Once you become fully conversant with this methodology you'll have more stock market knowledge and ability than about 95% of people who play the market.
No Storm client would have been wiped out if they'd known and implemented this particular method of investing in stocks. They would have known when to get into the market, when to get out, and how to identify the most suitable stocks. And they wouldn't have needed Manny bloody Cassamatis or any other investment adviser to tell them how to do it.

Real estate.....a bit of common sense and a few bob to get you started are all you need here. Residential real estate in growth areas will increase in value faster than the rate of inflation, and rentals will go up accordingly. Many people have built impressive property portfolios by putting deposits on houses in growth areas, borrowing the balance, and letting their tenants and the tax man meet most of the loan commitments. The amount of money that comes out of your pocket every month can be surprisingly small if you adopt this approach to property investment.
If you can fund the deposit on a house, banks will usually lend you the rest if you show you can meet the loan commitments. You can always utilise fixed rate loans if you're worried about interest rate rises.
The big growth areas in Queensland are the south east corner, Brisbane out to Toowoomba, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, and various major centres along the central and northern coastline. Rocky, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns, have all experienced strong growth and will do so again, although they've currently slowed down to some extent.
The following link may give you some useful information.
http://www.hotspotting.com.au/

As for cash, well, I think most of us know how to use short term bank products such as term deposits etc, when we're looking for a temporary home for surplus funds.

Hope this helps. I'm not a qualified investment adviser, just an ordinary bloke who's had sufficient interest in investment to do lots of reading and research over the years to come up with a few simple strategies that work.

 

[Monario]

Real estate.....a bit of common sense and a few bob to get you started are all you need here. Residential real estate in growth areas will increase in value faster than the rate of inflation, and rentals will go up accordingly. Many people have built impressive property portfolios by putting deposits on houses in growth areas, borrowing the balance, and letting their tenants and the tax man meet most of the loan commitments. The amount of money that comes out of your pocket every month can be surprisingly small if you adopt this approach to property investment.
If you can fund the deposit on a house, banks will usually lend you the rest if you show you can meet the loan commitments. You can always utilise fixed rate loans if you're worried about interest rate rises.
The big growth areas in Queensland are the south east corner, Brisbane out to Toowoomba, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, and various major centres along the central and northern coastline. Rocky, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns, have all experienced strong growth and will do so again, although they've currently slowed down to some extent.
The following link may give you some useful information.
http://www.hotspotting.com.au/

QUOTE]


Thanks for this post Bunyip, If you happen to have any other interesting sites for realestate please post them, as I am focusing some attention in this area now, as in the past, under storms advice, I did not.

 

[GumbyLearner]

Mate , there are very few asf'ers who haven't been taken by some bastard adviser at one time or another.

Welcome to the club.

And your plan is a good one.

Learn the search button. Its all in asf.

gg

Wise words

But my own personal experience is don't lie down just yet.
Fraud is fraud. It just depends if it was "knowingly" misrepresented. That's where, if proven, jail may be involved.

 

[Solly]

"CBA blames Storm over margin calls"


"Commonwealth Bank executives have told a parliamentary inquiry in Sydney that it was the responsibility of Storm Financials responsibility to inform its clients about margin calls.

Rather than come out firing, as the failed investment company's founder did yesterday at the inquiry into the collapse of Storm, the bank's representatives apologised to customers who lost their homes and livelihoods in the collapse.

CBA says it had changed procedures in 2003, effectively giving Storm the responsibility of telling its clients when margin loans were called.

The bank says that up until to November 2008, Storm was active in dealing with margin calls."

More from the ABC here;

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/04/2677290.htm

 

[Solly]

"How CBA deal fuelled Storm's grand delusion"

"A SECRET agreement between Storm Financial founder Emmanuel Cassimatis and Commonwealth Bank greatly increased the investment risks for Storm Financial's customers. But the bank failed to tell them of the risks.

In Brisbane, disenchanted former Storm staff member Ron Jelich, who sold his Redcliffe financial planning business to Storm, referred to the dictionary definition of chimera to explain Storm: ''A fanciful mental illusion or fabrication; a wild and unrealistic dream or idea.


...common CBA practice to make loans to retirees without requiring their signature on any loan application.'


Excellent article by Stuart Washington from The Age is here;

http://business.theage.com.au/business/how-cba-deal-fuelled-storms-grand-delusion-20090904-fbet.html

 

[Solly]

"Families and friendships ruptured by Storm lashing"

"IN the mid-1990s, Emmanuel Cassimatis and his wife Julie drove the 90km from Townsville down to Ayr for a barbecue with Julie's brother, well-known Ayr builder Danny Garvey, who had invited along several of the town's better-known citizens to meet the well-known Townsville financial adviser."

Read more by Andrew Fraser in The Australian here;

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26029085-5006786,00.html

 

[Solly]

"CBA grilled over Storm share sell-off"

"THE Commonwealth Bank of Australia has told a parliamentary inquiry that when the stockmarket tanked last year, Storm Financial ordered it not to contact its clients directly to notify them of margin calls."

More by Sara Rich and Andrew Fraser in The Australian here;

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26027672-36418,00.html

 

[Solly]

"Storm forced to face music in travelling Parliamentary inquiry"

"ON WEDNESDAY afternoon Lorna Abdy stood up in a room full of about 100 people in Townsville and told her story.

The room fell quiet as Mrs Abdy - a Charters Towers woman - said she was worried about her son, Raymond, a 29-year-old with an acquired brain injury after a car accident 11 years ago.........

A Cairns woman, Kate McColl, who has a seven-year-old and a four-year-old, fought back tears as she addressed the committee in Cairns to highlight what she called the ''network nature'' of the effects of the collapse....

''My parents are Storm Financial clients and I'm still working hard to keep the ownership of their home. They were retired and both of them have had to return to work in their late 60s,''

More by Stuart Washington in the SMH is here;

http://business.smh.com.au/business/storm-forced-to-face-music-in-travelling-parliamentary-inquiry-20090904-fbfi.html

 

[Solly]

"Cap'n Manny and his crazy crew"

"The Commonwealth Bank has plenty of questions to answer about its disastrous relationship with Storm Financial. Stuart Washington reports"

http://business.smh.com.au/business/capn-manny-and-his-crazy-crew-20090904-fbf0.html

(Stuart, I'm sure gg is impressed with the headline to your story..)

 

[Solly]

"CBA supplied 'substantial, accurate information' "

"Commonwealth Bank of Australia executives have claimed the bank supplied Storm Financial with daily updates about its clients' debt positions as the sharemarket was crashing late last year and rejected claims from the adviser that the data was seriously flawed."

Read more by Marsha Jacobs in The Australian Financial Review of Sept 5 2009.

 

[GumbyLearner]

Well this is where you need to make a decision Solly?

Do you have faith in the lenders or the borrowers?

Both are subject to the Statutory LAW of the Commonwealth?

Your choice of course?

 

[Solly]

I was with a group during the week where one Stormer said that they had recently been at a pretty low ebb. I shared my stories about some people I know who are going through some tough times as well.

It gave me quite some joy when he told the little group that he had recently stumbled across a little site called ASF, after it was referred to him.

He asked if the others had heard about ASF and how it has given him it a lot of help, information and hope regarding his current predicament.

Of course I truthfully said that I had heard of ASF and I too had learnt a lot from it.

So I just wanted to let you know first hand that there are some people out there who really appreciate your posts and guiding comments especially during the some of the most difficult times they have faced in their life...

 

[pegasus]

Hi Ya Shibby!!!

i am most interested in your comment that your adviser had sold their portfolio up but was under instructions not to sell your portfolio.

In recent weeks i have become aware that during the may to september period some of the advisers sold their private portfolios. I am collecting information on which advisers and dates.

Shibby can u tell me (either in a post or as a private message) which adviser u had and what date they told u they had sold their portfolio.

If anyone else out there has information on advisers selling out can they contact me also. Shows how useful this forum really is.

Guys the reason storm didnt want to sell anyone out (why storm instructed advisers not to sell anyone out) was that they new if they liquidated the portfolios there would be no way they could get anyone back in the market and hence they would have no clients and no business (storm would have been back to square 1) - so they cross their fingers and hoped the market would bounce back before the margin loans were called in (they gambled for purely selfish reasons and lost with the clients being the big losers). Most stormers were sold out between 4400 and 4000. The market fell another 23% from this point. At 3100 the negative equity in the storm portfolios would have exceeded $300m.

Another point to remember is that the Maquarie margin lending book was of similar size to CGI - there was over $2billion in margin loans! I understand that once the Margin lending book reached a certain size, the interest rates on the Storm corporate loan facility (used for building purchases etc) became zero. Pure conflict of interest!!!

I also suggest you read the Alan McDonald submission (the Storm IT guy) as i think he is pretty much on the money in terms of what happened and how it went down.

Carey, I am not sure where you are heading with this idea of advisers selling out before thier clients besides stirring the pot. Most of the advisers (that I know of) not only were sold out with thier clients but most of them ended up with very heavy negative equity as they had loans with CGI. Cant speak for all of them but quite a few did.

 

[Solly]

"Six key issues emerge in fiasco's wake"

"Storm Financial lived up to its name again yesterday as co-founder and chief executive Emmanuel Cassimatis broke months of silence to give his side of the story about the collapse."

Read more in the Australian Financial Review Friday, 04 September 2009 in COMMENT by Duncan Hughes

The last paragraph of Duncan's article says it all,

"The danger for the parliamentary inquiry is that it will become a high-profile sideshow unless it now refocuses on key issues and personalities making the major decisions in the company's final days, particularly, who pulled the plug on investor's margin loans."

 

[Quincy]

"CBA supplied 'substantial, accurate information' "

"Commonwealth Bank of Australia executives have claimed the bank supplied Storm Financial with daily updates about its clients' debt positions as the sharemarket was crashing late last year and rejected claims from the adviser that the data was seriously flawed."

Read more by Marsha Jacobs in The Australian Financial Review of Sept 5 2009.

See : - View attachment AFR - 05-06 SEP 2009.pdf

Mr Cohen said that when the bank raised the issue of market falls with Storm, Mr Cassimatis's wife, Julie, emailed asking CBA not to contact customers directly.