Investment in Generali Vision Plan - cut my losses or hang on?

Wise_one

Generali vision is an offshore investment, that's why it is not regulated by FSA, as i understand the idea was that your money grow tax free.
this saving plan is in Guernsey, which means you have government backed investor protection. Have a look on the Internet.
Also at the time of the investment i recon you had a financial adviser, just call them and ask about securities. Guernsey had up to 90% compensation scheme including growth, but I think it changed to "from 90% and up" in 2008 or 2010.
Before jumping into other investment think about that the over adviser is just another sales person! Who find your week spot on securities, which you actually have (the securities) and just don't remember how it works.
I would not recommend to switch without talking to provider of your investment.

Wise_one

Caher wrote: »

Hello,

I have been working in Switzerland for 3 years and have the same plan. At no time did the 'IFA' make it clear to me that the first 19 months were forfeit if you surrender early. It means i have lost this amount.

Why would you surrender, if you will lose the money?
Does not make any sense?!

Wise_one

Am I the only one who is reading terms and conditions?!

Flipflop1

Please try and sign this petition to holdd Generali accountable.
I can't post links but if you google search petition: Annul Vision contracts the link will come up..well worth a few seconds adding your views and thoughts and you never know, it might even make a difference.

screw_this

I'm kinda half way through my initial period, I can't take it no more.

radhika wrote: »

Hi all,
another idiot who has fallen for this here... Please no need for comments about how I should have read the T&C and tried to figure this all out before....I know now :P Came recommended by a friend --- now he is in the same mess.

I have put in quite a bit of money already, over 15.000 USD. I am about half-way through my initial period, which is 28 months (!!!) as it is a 30-year plan.

Now....in my situation, what do you all think? Stick with the high initial premiums (800 USD pm) for another year, and then drop to the minimum ca. 100 USD? Would this eat out all gains just through the admin fees? Or would it make sense if I left it on the minimum payment for 10 years? If anyone is good with this sort of calculations, I would really really appreciate it.

Otherwise, I walk out and lose the 15.000 USD. Which would hurt. A lot. But would I be better off if I stayed in? I would have no probs staying in for the long term, other than being really bitter about this particular plan.

Any recommendations would be extremely helpful, my next payment kicks in in one week, and if I decide to go out, I would like to do it before I lose the next 800 USD!

Thanks so much!!!

Jordangooner

I cannot believe how unscrupulous and callous Generali have been in their dealings with me, and I would be very happy to support you in a class action in Ireland. I would like to just recap my own experience with Generali with regards to the Brandeaux Student Accommodation Fund.
I realize now that this fund was completely misrepresented and miss sold to me. Brandeaux suspended the fund in July 13, and when I had taken the policy no one had advised me of this possibility. during the suspension, Generali continued to levy Administration and Service Charges. Additionally they were levying so-called overdraft charges. At that time Brandeaux were revaluing their fund and there were two significant downgrades in the fund value.
I had instructed the Portfolio Manager 9 months prior to the suspension to sell 30,000 units to clear the overdraft. I have subsequently found out that apparently the sale had never gone through, and suddenly Generali produced a statement indicating that the units had not been sold, eventhough I had been received statements showing that the units had been deducted from my shares. This therefore, affected an additional devaluation of £9,000.
Because I immediately decided as the Brandeaux fund had been sold, to fully surrender my investment after 6 years with them, this resulted in a further withdrawal cost of £10,000.
During the time I had been charged this enormous overdraft charge, I had enquired several times with Generali, the reason I was being charged, all they kept doing was sending me the original contract I had signed, with no effort to offer an explanation.
I also note that many of the reports that they subsequently sent me had never been available to me online.
So, I have three major issues with Generali, the fact that the financial reports sent to me were completely misleading, and to some extent had been manipulated. There was no mention in the original agreement that the fund could be suspended, therefore I would not receive any income for 2 years. There is no way I can prove whether the provisional sale went through or not. Also, they continued to levy overdraft charges, on their own charges and fees and the actual overdraft!
The bottom line is I will be lucky to get back what I put in with them 6 years ago.
Generali themselves would have made £50,000 out of my investment, and the Portfolio Manager, £20,000 . Originally my investment was with Friends Provident, and I was persuaded by the Portfolio Manager to move to Generali, as he said they are easier to deal with. I understand now that Generali pay the Portfolio Managers much higher commission, therefore there appears to be quite a lot of collusion in miss selling the fund to individuals like myself.

Generali I have found to be the most unprofessional and callous company I have dealt with, and all they care about is their own ruthless pursuit of profit, and pensioners like myself are there to be exploited, particularly not understand the small print.

I would advise anyone not to deal with Generali, if they wish to avoid being exploited.

Madam_Batterfly

Hi Mairoo,
based on my personal experience with Generali which is very NEGATIVE , if I were you I would surrender your policy. Yes, there are fees and you will lose almost 50% of the premium paid. BUT at least you will not continue to invest for nothing. Continuing paying you will lose more in the end. Based on my experience, I can tell you that they hardly pay something. I asked for Partial surrender 2 months ago. They declare 10 working days to release payment ("we do allow up to 10 working days from receipt of the original documentation to release the payment"). In fact after more than 1 month (all originals were well received by Generali one month ago) nobody can tell me what is going on with my request and when they release my money.
Neither Generali nor my IFA can resolve this issue. It brings me to the point that if they act this way in order to release a couple of thousands, they will never pay one hundred thousand.
It looks like they just do not want to pay and ask for different papers again and again. You follow their instructions and provide with the required. They keep silence for several weeks and then say that they need something else from you. All originals are valid during 3 months so finally we will come to the point that I have to gather all documents again I guess.

avaughan67

I am another mug who fell for Vision product and like Madam Butterfly have the same problem. I cut my losses and now 5 months down the line I am still waiting for a payout. The same issues in that they keep asking for clarifications although these have already been given more than once.


Has anybody taken them on legally for their behavior ?

AndrewWerdna

Hi
I am an expat working in China but took out a Generali policy in Switzerland for my daughters education. I only took this for 8 years and feel this is probably the maximum you should go for on such a policy. The policy wasnt going anywhere until I moved to China 3 years ago so I got a new IFA who also, manages my QROPS. This guy has most of his savings in a Generali acct so manages it closely and regularly changes the plans I am in. If your schemes are like mine, they need managing and if they are managed well then bring a nice 5 - 7% return per annum. We made changes and had a good month last month as my fund grew 600GBP in a month with 45K GBP invested (sorry Chinese keyboard doesn't have a pound sign). If they are just left unmanaged then they will go nowhere. I suggest if you are in this position you get good advise from a good IFA which agreed are difficult to find.

Malthusian

AndrewWerdna wrote: »

This guy has most of his savings in a Generali acct so manages it closely and regularly changes the plans I am in.

This should ring alarm bells, especially in a thread about overpriced investments flogged to expats. What was the reason for changing them?

If your schemes are like mine, they need managing and if they are managed well then bring a nice 5 - 7% return per annum. We made changes and had a good month last month as my fund grew 600GBP in a month with 45K GBP invested (sorry Chinese keyboard doesn't have a pound sign).

Returns are dependant on the stockmarket and have very little to do with the type of product invested in - except to the extent that the returns are reduced by charges or taxation.