Storm Financial Group

Garpal Gumnut said:

I have heard on the Townsville grapevine that "Storm Financial" is about to start up again under another name.

It will spruik "safe" shares such as Banks and Listed EPF's.

Just thought I'd let y'all know that a market correction don't always start in New York.

Pray for the gulls.

gg

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Double Digit returns over the past 2 years on the markets and people a quick to forget GG. It has been over 12 months since I have been on here and am not surprised to see your comment. While punters chase the get rich quick schemes and the likes of bitcoin makes them believe it can happen, we will see the next run of overpromise, underdeliver "advisers" with a can't lose strategy.

Get rich slowly I say.

Will Storm Financial be an item on the forthcoming Royal Commission in to the big 4 Banks?

Garpal Gumnut said:

Will Storm Financial be an item on the forthcoming Royal Commission in to the big 4 Banks?

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Jeez is it still going? I thought that all finished years ago.

Hi all,
Long time watcher, first time poster. For full disclosure I have been in the financial services now for nearly 20 years. I did work for a Big 4 bank as a financial adviser, since medically retired.
I have loved reading this page with some very good info posted.
As for storm, my 2 cents worth, the only person/people/company responsible for this is Storm and the 2 owners. I was working for a mob during the time when the GFC hit and we recieved the margin calls every day for the clients and we actioned them to prevent the margin call taking place. Storm chose not to do this and there is no way they did not receive the margin calls as every adviser that I know and was working during this period received margin calls as well. Storm for whatever reason chose to do nothing (arrogance me thinks). Unfortunately I don't think one red cent will come from the two owners. They were wealthy enough to put money away which no one can touch. They will continue to live of life fully funded. Nor do I think anything will happen to them either

As for double gearing, this can still be a very successful strategy if the structure is correct and the clients and advisers run it very strictly. It is definately not for everyone. Double gearing is still everywhere including in townsville where a few major player are still doing it. They must have done something right during the GFC (actioned margin calls)

As for the upcoming royal commission, some of the big 4 have taken major action in correcting the wrongs that have happened as well as changed the way they provide advice. I can only vouch for the bank i worked for. There have been no commissions paid for quite a few years now. They charge an advice fee based on the complexity involved, not a percentage of the money invested. They are now very strict on customer service and audit reports. If an adviser receives 2 bad customer service scores (only scores of 8/10 and above are a pass), they can loose their full potential bonus for the whole year. The same for audit reports which happen very frequently, except if you receive one really bad report you are DONE.

For those who think this will prove the superiority of industry funds, if the commission is done correctly, you may find yourself surprised. The ISF's don't show a lot of things (fees and charges) when they do their comparisons of funds. Now industry super funds have outperformed retail returns just slightly when these undisclosed fees are taken from the the ISF returns. They just don't disclose it during their advertising. Also, the comparisons only look at a single fund return, and not an investors total return over their investing timeframe, 2 very different things.

If they also look into the advice offerred by the ISF they may find it coming up surprisingly short of what people consider good advice. And the argument that advisers won't recommend an ISF is complete and utter bollocks. We recommended what ever fund met the clients need. Obviously this was not a rule followed by all advisers hence all the **** storms

The majority of my clients were approaching retirement and the advice was regarding maximising centrelink, aged pension, disability pensions, aged care and tax. I also did a lot of insurance advice as well. Without this advice these near pensioners/pensioners would have lost some or all of their potential centrelink benefits. So the notion that all adviser are bad and too stay away is pure fear mongering. I actually hope this royal commission digs a bit deeper than just the banks. there are a lot of smaller businesses out there giving dodgy advice and servie, but if a group with 7 advisers are fined or shut down it doesn't have the same headline of one of the big banks being fined for millions

There are always going to be cowboys in every industry and the sooner they are gotten rid of the better off all will be

Just my 2 cents work all. I know everyone won't agree with me but there are a lot of people who DO need advice. Hopefully they can get quality advice across the board one day

Cheers

Agree totally.

Jifromoz said:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-...fined-140k-over-800m-company-collapse/9576418

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After nine years since the collapse of Storm Financial and eight years of civil litigation by ASIC against Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis, the whole sorry saga ends not with a bang, but a whimper.

Storm Financial can be difficult to dissect but one thing for sure is that ASIC dropped the ball, even when the ball and their gloves were made from velcro.

ASIC needs to have a Royal commission set upon it.

gg

Hi,

I own a small business,

1) Do i need to apply for a tradmark to get a load?

If yes then can i do it myself?

Or do i need trademarking lawyers to get my business register?

nethanpaul said:

Or do i need trademarking lawyers to get my business register?

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You can find most of the answers at https://business.gov.au/guide/starting
Section 4 will give you info on ABN, Business name, Tax registration and Trade mark.
All of these can be done without lawyers, although an account may help.

Just for the information of newish members, back in 2008 I started this thread. On Storm Financial, an outfit that went broke and was invested in by every man, woman and dog who liked advisers.

It garnered over 8000 posts.
It had over 1m. views, 1,000,000.

This ASF thread was mentioned or referenced in most national newspapers and on most TV stations. The Storm debacle led to an Inquiry/Commission. Some interested parties hired PR professionals to post to the thread. Posts from ASF members helped many unfortunates. This was because the thread affected hundreds of investors and it was topical. Some ASF members got out before the fan slowed and eventually stopped.

So it is not difficult to post threads of interest, and safe to do so even if if there is alleged mismanagement or failure of duty one suspects as long as one keeps the language general, as in the first post.

Garpal Gumnut said:

Anyone know anything about these guys. A few of my mates are clients. They are Townsville based . I don't use advisers.

gg

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I have noticed an increasing reference to advisers and analysts on ASF as if they were prophets, that some ASF members believe in in fact that other ASF members are prophets.

The ducks for shooting are lining up as the market becomes "sexy" again. Where anyone can make money by throwing a dart or by selling and buying options or by listening to the guy who details your car.

I generally don't trust car detailers on stock or commodity picks unless they are on one of the dart teams at the hotel, nor analysts nor experts neither, but they are coming out of the woodwork again. I just thought I'd reference this thread as there is talk of less posts and replies to a severe degree on ASF. So post and start threads from what you know, and keep it safe by not posting rubbish or inflammatory threads.

Lastly I'd like to say that there are less charts being posted on ASF and this important part of investing is more or less being ignored on ASF. You can't work out where the market is going unless you know where it is coming from. End of Rant.

gg