Storm Financial Group

[asproboy]

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

Has anybody seen the E&J Cassimatis team lately?

It strikes me that with their business empire shut down, a nation of angry (and freshly-impoverished) clients - and their lawyers - running around, and a cool $26M allegedly siphoned out as 'dividends' over the past year, surely it'd be a snip to take the private jet out for an unscheduled spin to check out the real estate options in Majorca?

I hear Pixie Skase is heading back home; perhaps she's got something over there to rent?

Enough tongue-in-cheek; I just hope that the people behind this apparent cunningly-manipulative operation are held to account for their failure to offer appropriate advice to their clients who followed them faithfully (if perhaps thoughtlessly). I truly feel for the clients who have been used as an over-inflated cash cow.

 

[Smiley]

The email link for the advocacy group did not work - sent an email and it bounced back.
No one I know who has tried for a reduction in break fees has been successful.

 

[sqwark7600]

it would be interesting to hear this aspect clarified - what exactly did Storm invest peoples borrowings into - and how was the title to the assets (be they stocks, units in a trust etc.) registered/managed? Did investors get statements showing where their money was invested with its value updated on a regular basis or anything like that?

Storm had eight funds in their own name (~badged: 3 non-index and 5 index) with James Packer's Challenger Group as the responsible entity and listed on their site. Challenger - Storm Australian Broadmarket Indexed Trust dropped 77.2% from it's peak in May 2008 to a few days ago.

And so your two questions are very relevant.
However, it seems we will have to wait for this to unfold in the press as few details on the mechanics of Storm's customer relationships have surfaced; and that would be a pity as I see a few conflicts of interest down that street. Maybe they have been advised to remain mum by their silks.
There is next to no contact information on the Storm Investors Consumer Action Group (SICAG)...except for an email address which doesn't respond to simple info requests:
sicag_tsv@live.com.au
Presumably they are slowly getting their act together; but to get 400 people together at Redcliffe someone had to have a mailing list and some energy. Something may be in the Townsville Bulletin tomorrow.
Your watch.
:sheep:

 

[sqwark7600]

The email link for the advocacy group did not work - sent an email and it bounced back.
No one I know who has tried for a reduction in break fees has been successful.

My try didn't bounce it just wasn't answered nor was my try to ABC investigative journalist Jonathon Hall. Couldn't contact Sara Elks who has been covering for the Australian. I believe the Townsville Bulletin must have their papers printing now so their night editor may be up and about, worth a try.
.....SICOG is beginning to fail my smell test.
Mark Weir is supposedly their spokesperson and John McLennan their motivational activist; both from Brisbane I understand.
:sheep:

 

[Solly]

Has anybody seen the E&J Cassimatis team lately?

It strikes me that with their business empire shut down, a nation of angry (and freshly-impoverished) clients - and their lawyers - running around, and a cool $26M allegedly siphoned out as 'dividends' over the past year, surely it'd be a snip to take the private jet out for an unscheduled spin to check out the real estate options in Majorca?

I hear Pixie Skase is heading back home; perhaps she's got something over there to rent?

Enough tongue-in-cheek; I just hope that the people behind this apparent cunningly-manipulative operation are held to account for their failure to offer appropriate advice to their clients who followed them faithfully (if perhaps thoughtlessly). I truly feel for the clients who have been used as an over-inflated cash cow.

Well asproboy, we now need to rely on our handpicked team of government and legal professionals to apply remedies, that is if the are warranted....
Time will tell..

 

[daisy]

I’ve only just remembered this and I don’t know if this information is of any use to anybody but...
As I’ve already said in 2000-2001 I knew nothing about managed funds. We had some money with another FP up here who had promised us by the time we wanted to retire we would have a certain amount of money. Then we got our annual statement and we had lost money. I didn’t understand about bull and bear markets . I just assumed the FP we were with wasn’t any good. I now understand that at the time we were in a bear market, so all funds would have been losing money.

So we started doing the rounds of FPs. We also responded to cassimatis’s T.V. ad and made a booking for the seminars. Before they commenced we visited another FP, who operated on his own.

During that interview I mentioned we had booked into Cassimatis’s seminars. The FPs response was that he had people trooping in and out of his office all day long asking him to help them get them out of Ozdaq. Which is what Cassimatis called his operation then. At the time I dismissed this as professional rivalry and sales talk. Now of course I realise that they were probably people trapped in the same situation as many people find themselves in now.

Now I’m getting into conjecture and hazy memory. But I think the name ozdaq was meant to mirror the nazdaq. And I think that the actual investment vehicle was an IT index fund which ozdaq had designed itself (by that I mean it was their own selection of stocks that comprised the index.)

Also again hazy memory but I’m almost certain that I read somewhere that ozdaq was investigated by ASIC and cleared. I’ve tried to do an internet search for that info but can’t find it. So I may have my facts wrong.
I’m not offering this info as a negative influence but more as if ASIC did investigate last time around and cleared them then maybe they do have a case to answer, particularly combined with the fact that one of storms directors sat on the FP review board.

 

[daisy]

As far as trolls gleaning the site for information,,, I am going to assume that I am not the most intelligent person on this planet and anything I say here has probably already been considered by those whose job it is to consider .
I do intend however to be more careful of things I say as regards threats libel slander and incitement.

 

[Judd]

........Also again hazy memory but I’m almost certain that I read somewhere that ozdaq was investigated by ASIC and cleared. I’ve tried to do an internet search for that info but can’t find it.

This is the PDF of Reasons for Decision by IP Australia (Trademark stuff.) I believe that there was also a Federal Court case in which Ozdaq lost.

I should also mention that around 2000 - 2003 there were various index trusts under the Ozdaq badge, for example

http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/offerlist/offerlist?doc_no=016881736&time=200108250541

There was also Ozdaq Securities Pty Ltd (providing proactive financial solutions of course) headquartered in Buderim. I'll let you guess the names of the principles of that organisation.

 

[Solly]

Storm Financial's unpaid acquisition trail

"The collapse of Storm Financial has left a trail of unpaid bills, with the worst hit being the financial planners who sold their businesses to the group during its expansionary era and who are yet to be paid.

Storm Financial owes $28.4 million to the vendors of financial planning businesses acquired by the group, the administrators have found. This is the most substantial amount owed by the group, with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) owed $27.09 million."

Story by Lucinda Beaman is here:

http://www.moneymanagement.com.au/article/Storm-Financials-unpaid-acquisition-trail/435456.aspx

 

[Solly]

FPA criticised over Storm Financial

"Financial services commentator Paul Resnik has used a column to be published in Money Management next week to strongly criticise both the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in the wake of the Storm Financial collapse."

Mike Taylor's story is here:
http://www.moneymanagement.com.au/Article/FPA-criticised-over-Storm-Financial/435458.aspx

 

[daisy]

In one of my very first posts into this forum I said that I liked Mr. Cassimatis and I was puzzled as to how this disaster happened. That’s actually how I came to this forum...looking for an answer. I couldn't understand how he let this happen. Blind Freddy could see this crisis coming.
But as more and more stories emerge about the way he handled his affairs I have revised my opinion and light has dawned.
Cassimatis sure was a great salesman. We weren’t prepared to bet our house but he still sucked me in.

 

[daisy]

Blind Freddy could see this crisis coming.

By Blind Freddy I mean anybody who is involved with the market and watches it and reads about it. Which surely C. did.

 

[Glue]

One thing that seems to come up on this forum is self education and that storm clients should have been better self educated. I think it needs to be kept in mind that a lot, perhaps the majority of people are lacking in time (I can imagine your responses to that!) and more importantly capability. Not everyone is born equal, and it can be difficult to know where to start and how it relates to ourself.

Also, at this stage the clients who have lost the lot or even a lot will be grieving and there are many stages to this, and some people will get stuck along the way, and eventually most will get through it, the human mind is pretty resiliant. I myself got caught and am seeking help to get out of the situation.

Please keep in mind even the uneducated in financial world deserve the opportunity to do more than tuck money in a cash account or under the bed and we do need fp help to retire comfortably.Thanks I feel better i have that off my chest!:

 

[asproboy]

Cassimatis sure was a great salesman. We weren’t prepared to bet our house but he still sucked me in.

As I suggested earlier - cunningly manipulative: a person with extensive industry experience who created an entire system stacked wholly in his favour, then executed a beautiful drama that capitalised on a market growth cycle, inspiring a cult-like following amongst clients whose wealth was being gouged as they made their paper returns.

'Responsible' financial prose was twisted and exploited to explain away the obvious conflicts of interest in play. All this appears to have motivated - and then preyed on - people's extreme greed then, as the drama reached a crescendo, an inevitable correction causes the whole system to implode, leaving nothing but a hastily-withdrawn dividend trail...

Evil is an intelligent and seductive beast.

 

[daisy]

Agree Glue,
If the gov'ts expectation is that we are to provide for ourselves in our "golden years" then somewhere along the line education needs to be addressed. I know that some schools do now have classes and kids compete against each other and papertrade the ASX. I don't know if that is an elective subject or a cirriculum requirement.
I was able to get into this because at the time I started I wasn't working and I viewed it as my contribution to our household. I embraced my studies as a full time occupation. But once I got over my initial just learning what all the words meant I discovered that I was fascinated by the whole subject and it became my hobby. Very confusing when I started though.

 

[Slight Edge]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - if you're one of the clients who have lost everything DONT let the advisers build a case to have their businesses paid for... as I have stressed before - all of those advisers... YOUR advisers knew the risks and gambled on the float in the hope that they'd be millionaires on the float of the company. Their greed cost them and it cost you...

You all deserve compensation first and foremost - Demand from your local members an enquiry and complain to Worrels, Korda Mentha, Scattini, your news papers and news services - those advisers weren't blind...just blinded.

Remember - the hungry wolf takes the most risks.

 

[daisy]

Slight edge,
Would those businesses be considered secured creditors?

 

[Slight Edge]

Slight edge,
Would those businesses be considered secured creditors?

It seems so due to the report from the administrators but I wonder if they are correct in the interpretation... I know most of the principals who are making this claim and I can tell you for a FACT that they knew what they were doing and were spending the money well and truly before they got it.

I am amazed that how quickly they have abandoned the sinking ship - perhaps a commentary on their integrity? I know that the local principal and his little sidekick have already been contacting clients to let them know that they are going to re-establish a business and wants to know if the clients so affected will consider going back to them!

Best of luck with that - I just hope people aren't so forgiving. Remember who your ADVISER was in the last 12 months.

 

[mitasol]

Thank god I listened to own scepticism about 2 yrs ago when I went to a storm seminar. The two most memorable parts of that evening was the emphasis on the fact that the guy presenting the seminar was ex-Commbank, the other was learning how to avoid the heard mentality. An old employer of mine had also referred to the principal as "Count your fingers" so perhaps that had already affected my judgement

I went to a Dallecort seminar as well and whilst not as "slick" it was still the same idea. I went away, did my numbers, factored in a few variables and decided not to risk the house.

I can empathise with those caught though, the presentation was very slick and so were the presenters.

 

[daisy]

Please keep in mind even the uneducated in financial world deserve the opportunity to do more than tuck money in a cash account or under the bed and we do need fp help to retire comfortably.Thanks I feel better i have that off my chest!:

I know this is off topic but...
I don't think the problem is using financial planners as such. If you are an extremely busy person they offer a service just like a dog washer. You know how to wash your dog but you are busy and you pay someone to do it for you. And you can assess whether the dogwasher is doing a good job or not. If it's still got fleas...

The problem with people using FPs is not having even the slightest idea about how the market works. So they have no idea about what is going on and/or why.
And so it's not possible to assess the performance of their FP and people just have to take their word for it.

In all bookshops and on ebay there are heaps of books of a general nature about this subject. If you want to use FPs you don't need to know the intracies of the details but a general overview would empower decision making.