Couldn't let this go by without acknowledging it.
It is exactly a year ago to the day (and almost to the minute if I've got my timing right) since Garpul Gumnut started this thread.
He has proved very incisive with a lot of things over the last 12 months but I bet even he didn't have any idea how things were going to unfold since he started this thread. I won't rabbit on too much more except to say thanks to everyone for all your input especially solly who has done more than anyone else to keep us all up to date with his link postings and insightful comments.
To those adversely affected by all this my best wishes that you get a good outcome and keep fighting you deserve every bit of compensation you can get and more.
I can only hope that everyone is able to put this tragedy behind them before the 2nd anniversary of this thread rolls around.
Good luck and all the best to you all.
Thank you for your kind words Grey Ghost.
Unfortunately for Stormers, I did have a good idea of how things would unfold, as I had been scammed many years ago in a similar show, my first and only contact with a financial planner. I recovered and have never been to one since.
The word was out in Townsville that Storm was a potential basket case the week I posted. I had no inside knowledge, but in a small rich city like this , word travels fast.
That was what prompted me to start the thread, to get the fish a moving with some burley, and to find out where they lurked.
The whole thread escalated from there thanks to all the incisive posters who followed on.
gg
I am new to this post, but i am very well across the affairs of Storm. I must say I think some of you are a bit harsh on Harlequin and are missing one crucial point. I think Harlequin has probably missed it too or not communicated it too well. The point is this:
Stormers paid good money to a professional (presumably because they did not have the skills) for a financial plan. Amongst other things that plan had certain parameters to be maintained. One of those important parameters was the maximum LVR. At the end, the financial adviser (ie Storm) did not stick to the plan that was presented to their client. This is where I believe a stormer could absolve themselves from responsibility.
An anology - If a doctor told you he was going to remove your tonsils, but then performed a labotomy, i think you would be pretty unhappy (well, if that was possible!!).
I think the Stormers took some risk possibly knowing that they could lose some money, never expecting that they could lose everything because their adviser did not follow their own model.
I know some of you will say that these people should have been following their own investments etc. Just remember that the typical Stormer is financially uneducated and/or a pensioner. The dramatic falls in the market led to a situation where these people did not / could not concieve what was happening or did not know how to act and therefore had to rely on the person they paid to look after them.
MB73, all your points are valid and worthwhile reiterating to the opposing camps in the recent posts. I would like to add some of my own views as a Townsville resident familiar with investors in Storm and since last year with the Storm Model.
The investors in the Storm model were to a large degree unsophisticated and led by the spin proferred by Manny and the crew of HMS Pinafore. Pensioners, small business people, workers and retirees, flocked to Storm over the years. They were driven by word of mouth and spin.
The model was initially very successful but did not plan for a dramatic market fall. The punters believed it would never end and it became like a religion. Family members were enrolled or looked at askance if they declined to invest. It was all too good to be true.
The inevitable fall was what Manny calls a Black Swan event. It was not a black swan event or any other event but a natural fluctuation in the markets which has been occurring for centuries.
The criminal negilgence in the mismanagement of the clients LVR's is what has left the Stormers losing everything, by putting their homes up as collateral and not liquidating the loan in time. Whether this is Storm's fault or the Banks will be played out in the courts.
The average unsophisticated Storm client would have trusted Storm as much as they would their doctor, and that is why so many have been bewildered and unable to move on from this affair. This is in part due to their age, their lack of financial education and in some a blind belief that Manny was correct and done in by the banks.
By the way, some investors were "sophisticated" and did not suffer as much as others, and also many "unsophisticated" had been with Storm for many years, and had done well. They in turn lost more relatively than others, but made it initially on the back of a crook model.
gg