I've heard that there has been a major development in the Storm case...Macquarie Bank have offered a substantial out of court settlement, which the class action lawyers believe is good enough to accept.
Macquarie settles Storm Financial investor suit for $82.5m
MACQUARIE Group has agreed to settle for $82.5 million a case brought against the firm by investors advised by Storm Financial, the Queensland financial advice business that collapsed in the global financial crisis.
In a statement to the stock exchange today, the financial services giant said the settlement included an acknowledgement by the investors - who had margin loan facilities provided by Macquarie - that there was no wrongdoing by Macquarie.
The $82.5m settlement, which requires the approval of the Federal Court of Australia, will have no impact on Macquarie’s result for the year to March 31 or any subsequent period, the firm said. Macquarie declined to comment.
Yes invest wisely in the future and stay away from financial advisers .. Ahmen to that.Congratulations, all Storm investors with loans from Macquarie.
This is great news, and an incredible sea-change.
You will be the first large group of small investors in the history of Australian Financial Advisory debacles, to actually get a victory over the big guys.
This will set a precedent, and protect your children and grandchildren.
I never thought you would achieve it.
Well done.
Let us hope you invest wisely in the future and stay away from financial advisers.
gg
Congratulations, all Storm investors with loans from Macquarie.
This is great news, and an incredible sea-change.
You will be the first large group of small investors in the history of Australian Financial Advisory debacles, to actually get a victory over the big guys.
This will set a precedent, and protect your children and grandchildren.
I never thought you would achieve it.
Well done.
Let us hope you invest wisely in the future and stay away from financial advisers.
gg
Yes invest wisely in the future and stay away from financial advisers .. Ahmen to that.
I'm all for people educating themselves, have harped on about it all through this thread, but to imply that all financial advisers are shonks is a bit unreasonable and unfair to those who genuinely have their clients' interests at heart. To assume they are all like Storm is not right.
In a statement to the stock exchange today, the financial services giant said the settlement included an acknowledgement by the investors - who had margin loan facilities provided by Macquarie - that there was no wrongdoing by Macquarie.
In reference to the statement above in blue......
I’m not here to judge whether or not there was wrongdoing by Macquarie.
I’ve said many times on this forum that if any wrongdoing can be proven against the banks, then they should be penalised accordingly.
But what I find myself wondering is this......
If investors acknowledge that there was no wrongdoing by Macquarie, then why was that company sued by investors?
The article is a tad confusing in some respects. It reports that investors lost $290M which varies from other amounts reported to have been lost. Taking it at face vale, I'll assume that it relates only to Macquarie so the settlement is about $0.28 in the dollar. After the lawyers slice out their cut (no pro bono there!) what does that leave? 15c to 20c in the dollar? After all that stress and angst. Seems to me that the investors still lost and not only in monetary terms. As was stated ages ago in this thread, most of the law is about property, ie who owns or owes what, and not about people and you can never be certain about the final outcome.
As for the bank(s) a one-off (relatively miniscule) hit to the bottom line (and probably tax deductible) after which who cares.
Bunyip, We have living in our street a Financial Adviser, our street is a high $ street, this adviser is over 60 years old, he rents his house and car, I find it unbelievable that he who has NOTHING should be allowed to advise people what to do with their life savings.
That's a good perspective. People who have not acquired some basic financial literacy will not be in a position to question what they're being told.Financial advisors will always pose a risk as they can use their financial knowledge against those who need financial advice.
There must almost be a sense of anticlimax amongst the relief.It has been a long road for many of us since we were shafted by Storm and the banks back in 2008. Now that a settlement has been reached between the people in the Macquarie Bank class action and that ****house bank one would think that the likes of us who were in the class action would be celebrating? However, I personally have mixed feelings this morning. Certainly, I am pleased that we can at long last have closure but I am left with an empty feeling that the job was only half done. At the end of the day the bad guys were able once again to buy themselves out of trouble and all the rhetoric tht has gone before didn’t really amount to a hill of beans in the final analysis.
True enough.We won’t even be a glitch on the Macquarie Bank’s balance sheet this year.
I don't think anyone is going to argue with your cynicism on this front. It's difficult to have much respect for the whole legal system, including the decisions of the judiciary in many instances.As for our legal system I have seen it in action first-hand in the past few months. It no longer serves the people but instead provides a means of sucking people even further dry. Yes, we obtained a settlement by using this avenue but if the Law really served the people, it would pursue these criminals come what may and not allow them to escape by buying their way out of jail.
Oh, and by the way, don’t even bother to try and find justice in a courtroom unless you have a few million to spare. It costs $15,000 a day just to be heard before you throw in the legal fat cats for good measure.
By settling you took the only reasonable option. Your opponents would never have run out of money to fight you. To have the whole miserable business finished with some return of your funds is surely better than the continued stress of fighting a battle you were never going to win.Above all else, we that settled missed a unique opportunity to strike a blow for all those that have been shafted by banks. Hopefully, one day these pillars of vice will be brought into line. Until that day comes we all remain potential victims of their greed.
Do you necessarily know that he doesn't have a string of investment properties or various other sources of income?
Just finds, as many people do, that renting is a more financially viable option?
Ditto leasing a car, it's tax deductible, and an easy way to turn it over more frequently.
I have no idea of his circumstances, just suggesting what you see on the surface may not be the whole picture.
Bunyip, We have living in our street a Financial Adviser, our street is a high $ street, this adviser is over 60 years old, he rents his house and car, I find it unbelievable that he who has NOTHING should be allowed to advise people what to do with their life savings.
How do you know? Re late rent, he might be a sloppy administratorHe has nothing,
I see no reason why Financial Advice should not be included in the Education Curriculum from Grade 1, complete with free " piggy banks " for students.
gg
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