Storm Financial Group
- Thread starter Garpal Gumnut
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Unfortunately, many kids are not educated in Real-World financial management while at school; this simply reflects the view of government that worker-bees don't really need to know about how to manage their financial affairs effectively and conserve the capital that results from any productive labour that they might engage in. Culpable neglect on the part of government imo. Thats one of the reasons why we have the Storm Financial debacle......there are a few others of course, most of them covered on this thread.
Once upon a time only doctors, lawyers, savvy business persons and the landed aristocracy were into the gearing and margin lending games. This was before bracket creep, which came about due to monetary inflation, promoted by government as the way to the never-never land of never-ending "growth". The feds consciously colluded with the RBA to feed a gigantic Ponzi scheme based on negative gearing - real estate initially, followed by the stock market. With bracket creep, everyone had to get in on the tax-minimisation thingy. Threw money into what are essentially non-productive assets to get a big ATO cheque each year. A total joke. Eventually, the "authorities" even allowed the peddling of CFDs to "just your average mum and dad" with a spare half a million or three...WTF!!!! Heck, we already had negative gearing, margin lending, Lotto, the casino, the TAB..... All this crazy gearing was bound to end up causing lots tears some-day; that some-day has now dawned.
Keating tried to knock negative gearing in real estate on the head - I think that he may have foreseen the long term disastrous nature of the beast. Look where he got with that!
Once upon a time only doctors, lawyers, savvy business persons and the landed aristocracy were into the gearing and margin lending games. This was before bracket creep, which came about due to monetary inflation, promoted by government as the way to the never-never land of never-ending "growth". The feds consciously colluded with the RBA to feed a gigantic Ponzi scheme based on negative gearing - real estate initially, followed by the stock market. With bracket creep, everyone had to get in on the tax-minimisation thingy. Threw money into what are essentially non-productive assets to get a big ATO cheque each year. A total joke. Eventually, the "authorities" even allowed the peddling of CFDs to "just your average mum and dad" with a spare half a million or three...WTF!!!! Heck, we already had negative gearing, margin lending, Lotto, the casino, the TAB..... All this crazy gearing was bound to end up causing lots tears some-day; that some-day has now dawned.
Keating tried to knock negative gearing in real estate on the head - I think that he may have foreseen the long term disastrous nature of the beast. Look where he got with that!
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I realise that some people participating in this thread may not be familiar with the use of the
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Bill Buckby of KordaMentha said, "Cassimatis' large personal fortune, which includes various properties – one a multi-million dollar house on Melton Tce – and a Learjet, would be untouched because they were not used as securities for the company."
It appears not everbody needed to borrow against their home.....
Story from the Townsville Bulletin;
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2009/01/21/34121_hpnews.html
It appears not everbody needed to borrow against their home.....
Story from the Townsville Bulletin;
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2009/01/21/34121_hpnews.html
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nihonjin desuka? Yamabushi wa Mountain Priest desuka? Naze sono namae alanda no?
Julia
In Memoriam
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Thanks, Joe, for again calling attention to this. I brought it up a couple of pages ago but no one seems to have taken any notice. Even just before your post here, there are posts where it's very difficult to distinguish between the post being quoted and the new remarks. If the Quote tags aren't used properly, we also don't know whose post you are quoting from.
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Well shibby......the next call is yours....you've got the balls now.... What's your next step??
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Well you do yourself credit by objectively assessing and acknowledging your situation and your own involvement in it. Reading your earlier post it sounds like you came into the Storm situation through an unfortunate set of coincidences rather than actively choosing to invest with them. Regardless of how it came about, as you've stated yourself - the reality is that you probably didn't have the courage of your convictions at the time the situation was occurring - but you also didn't have the benefit of hindsight that you do now. As you state - you weren't an expert and they may have been right - the market may have turned around - and you may have looked the goose if you'd insisted on withdrawing your funds at that time.
It sounds as though you weren't alone both in your suspicions about where things were headed, or in being brow beaten into not acting to remove yourself from the situation. If you do actually have records of faxed or emailed instructions to close out your debt you are probably on good grounds for a claim via the professional indemnity insurance channel.
If you don't have these then you probably didn't assert yourself strongly enough - but you are not alone in finding it difficult to have the courage to remove yourself from a difficult situation. History is littered with examples of it - often involving far more serious consequences than the loss of wealth - particulary if we factor in the cult like atmosphere that seemd to surround this company - but even without being pulled into the hype it would still have taken a lot of courage to back your own point of view against that of supposed experts.
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sam76, No, I'm just an ordinary Aussie from the Hinterland Ranges....Not so much a Mountian Priest, more someone who dwells or hides around the mountain ranges..maybe a bit of a Solitary existence...but never backs away from adversity
Garpal Gumnut
Ross Island Hotel
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Meaning the balls in my court?
You know right at this moment I don't have a clue, except survive.
Shibby,
That is step one on the road out of this mess. These b's might have taken your money. But as trite as this may sound money isn't everything. Don't let them take anything else. Just take one day at a time and a plan will emerge.
Something I heard once about how to deal with the aftermath of a catastrophic event in your life was to use all your self discipline and allow yourself half an hour and only half an hour each day to think about what has happened. For the rest of the day whenever the horror that you have been through threatens to take over your thoughts you schedule it to be emotionally dealt with in the time period that you have allotted.
It was from a young woman who had suffered the most horrible of facial injuries as a result of an accident.
But she was a survivor too.
All I can say to tha is they had better not plan on living in that house ever again because they would be in extreme danger of someone breaking into their house in the middle of the night and.....
In fact I'll go further and say they probably won't be able to live in this town ever again. At worst their lives will be danger at best they will be treated like lepers.
But they probably already know that so I imagine they'll move into another town and set up shop again under a different name.
That is if they can still get a financial planners licence. But surely ASIC will prevent these people from ever operating in this field again....
Although that really doesn't matter I suppose unless the regulatory authorities examine what has happened here and put controls in place to ensure it cannot happen again, next bull market someone else will start up doing exactly the same thing.
So I would suggest to all those who have been hurt by this and want justice and are determined to fight through the system accept the fact that your money has gone and you will not get it back and direct your anger and energy at trying to ensure that this doesn't happen again. Make that the focus of your rage and allow it to direct your actions and the course you take rather than seeking personal compensation.
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Correct, Great you've checked that box.
Have you sort any legal advice regarding your own position ?
Have you contacted your credit providers to see what is negotiable and to see if any other opitions are available to you.
I gather you are in NSW, Senator John Williams has been vocal about the event, see if he can offer anything more than hot air.
Why not touch base with the Storm Investors Consumer Action Group to see if there's anything benefical for you there.
Let us all know what progress you are making.
Also here's a report
Macquarie denies abandoning Storm clients
Macquarie denies abandoning Storm clients and sets up a team dedicated to servicing affected clients.
"We have a dedicated team servicing the Storm clients who have margin loan facilities with us. We ask that clients contact us directly if they would like to discuss their margin loan options," the spokesperson said.
Here's the story, keep them to their word.
http://www.investordaily.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/id/style/5609.htm
Well if being rude to the Storm adviser's face, asking to sign a form to get out is what you call being assertive, I did . . . and just got out with a pittance still in the market; they stalled.
Though Macquarie cashed out the rest of my huge margin loan in a few days.
The next step is the Storm Investors Consumer Action Group being formed by John McLennan (met in sou qld and will meet in Townsville next week) and I will try the lawyers - just to keep up the bad publicity and perhaps stir up the FPA and ASIC.
Though Macquarie cashed out the rest of my huge margin loan in a few days.
The next step is the Storm Investors Consumer Action Group being formed by John McLennan (met in sou qld and will meet in Townsville next week) and I will try the lawyers - just to keep up the bad publicity and perhaps stir up the FPA and ASIC.
I have done a lot of online searches for the action group and no luck but am hoping there will be a public notice in the T'ville Bully about next week's mtg soon; and after the meeting I will post any contact details I have. Anyone else out there with info on it, yes please let me know too, if you have any contacts now.
The next step is the Storm Investors Consumer Action Group being formed by John McLennan (met in sou qld and will meet in Townsville next week) and I will try the lawyers - just to keep up the bad publicity and perhaps stir up the FPA and ASIC.
Go Smiley, I don't have a personal involvement in storm except to say that it was a such a close shave that as this mess started to emerge I felt physically sick. And every time there was another story my stomach churned. Don't know how I'd handle it if it were me. I only know how I like to think I would handle it. Which would be with the positive perspective that you seem to have.
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A family member was about to sign up with this mob about 12-18 months ago (basically at the top of the market). She went through with the majority of the paperwork but they handed it back to her and said wait 6 months because she was a guarantor on a loan and would have trouble getting a margin loan facility set up.
Since then she has let me look at the paperwork and the fees and notes from meetings. They wanted to charge nearly $50k just to set the thing up! and their ongoing fees where crazy. The only reason she became aware of storm was when she used to work for a financial planning company which was bought out by Storm and the owners had to "work" their clients to convert them to storm clients.
I feel sorry for any one caught up in this mess but was just wondering if anyone originally had a different financial planner that was subsequently bought and then were convinced to switch their original plan to storms?
Since then she has let me look at the paperwork and the fees and notes from meetings. They wanted to charge nearly $50k just to set the thing up! and their ongoing fees where crazy. The only reason she became aware of storm was when she used to work for a financial planning company which was bought out by Storm and the owners had to "work" their clients to convert them to storm clients.
I feel sorry for any one caught up in this mess but was just wondering if anyone originally had a different financial planner that was subsequently bought and then were convinced to switch their original plan to storms?
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I have a question about Storm from reading the article on the weekend in the Sunday Mail. (Please excuse me for not going through the many pages of this thread).
It mentioned that the people may not get 'something back' - what is this 'something back'? Does that mean that when Storm bought the shares that they kept them in Storms name (i.e. didn't put them in the buyers name)? This sounds really strange that you would sign up for a loan and let a broker buy shares for you and not put them in your own name...
If they bought shares for their customers and put them in the customers name (e.g. what you would expect) and then the shares went kapput then how is this different to everyone else? As in boo hoo, join the queue... I met a MCQ broker 6 months before the crisis and now half my life savings are gone via a margin loan but I dont expect 'something back'. I bought the shares fair and square (on a big fat loan using my home equity), shares went kapput - I lost all my money - I don't expect anyone to 'pay me back'.
I have always wondered what the fuss was about - either you were so silly you let someone buy thousands of dollars of stock for you and keep in their name, or you bought shares in your own name and they went down and now you're left holding the pieces...
Obviously there is something I am missing in this particular situation...?
It mentioned that the people may not get 'something back' - what is this 'something back'? Does that mean that when Storm bought the shares that they kept them in Storms name (i.e. didn't put them in the buyers name)? This sounds really strange that you would sign up for a loan and let a broker buy shares for you and not put them in your own name...
If they bought shares for their customers and put them in the customers name (e.g. what you would expect) and then the shares went kapput then how is this different to everyone else? As in boo hoo, join the queue... I met a MCQ broker 6 months before the crisis and now half my life savings are gone via a margin loan but I dont expect 'something back'. I bought the shares fair and square (on a big fat loan using my home equity), shares went kapput - I lost all my money - I don't expect anyone to 'pay me back'.
I have always wondered what the fuss was about - either you were so silly you let someone buy thousands of dollars of stock for you and keep in their name, or you bought shares in your own name and they went down and now you're left holding the pieces...
Obviously there is something I am missing in this particular situation...?
