Have my parents been scammed?

VicMazonas

Hello everyone

Sorry to jump straight in and ask for help, but I'm worried about my parents.

They moved to Spain a few years ago just before the recession, hoping to start a business out there, but money has been tight. I recently found out they've been in touch with a company about unlocking my father's pension, as they've been asking me to check their bank balance online daily to see when their money starts going through (they don't have internet access right now).

The money was supposed to start arriving 2 weeks ago but nothing has gone through yet. Yesterday they called the company they're going through and were assured it would go through that day, but still nothing.

My parents are going through a company called Continental Wealth Management, although Evergreen Retirement Trust is also mentioned on the emails and documents they've received. I can't include links to their websites sadly as I'm new, but there is a website for each name and they appear as the first result in a google search.

I'm concerned that I can't find much independent information about either CWM or ERT. Googling their names doesn't bring up many relevant results, and while I can find similar-sounding names on the FSA bewares list (Evergreen Equity and Continental Offshore Finance) I can't find these names at all. I'm going to be calling the FSA on Monday to try and get more information, but in the meantime...

Has anyone here heard of Continental Wealth Management or Evergreen Retirement Trust? Has anyone used them? Or heard anything - good or bad - about them?

Lokolo

"Unlocking" a pension usually means scam.

VicMazonas

Lokolo wrote: »

"Unlocking" a pension usually means scam.

Oooooh dear. Is that always the case? Sigh, I hope my parents haven't done anything stupid.

jem16

VicMazonas wrote: »

Hello everyone

Sorry to jump straight in and ask for help, but I'm worried about my parents.

What age is your father?

VicMazonas

jem16 wrote: »

What age is your father?

He's quite young! Turns 50 next year. My mum's a few years older - 53 or 54 I think.

dunstonh

That makes it a scam. You cannot access your pension prior to age 55 without involving some form of tax evasion that the HMRC would look at once they become aware of it. (caveat on illness cases)

VicMazonas

Ah. Well, that's a depressing result, but thank you for letting me know. I'll tell them immediately and then do what I can to help them minimise the damage.

jem16

VicMazonas wrote: »

He's quite young! Turns 50 next year. My mum's a few years older - 53 or 54 I think.

I expect the plan would be to use QROPS - but that is only if your father has been out of the UK for more than 5 years. Does this apply?

There has been a few threads on various ex-pats forums.

http://www.tenerifeforum.org/tenerife-forum/showthread.php?15938-Has-anyone-had-experience-with-a-company-called-Continental-Wealth-Management

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=739033

http://www.france-forum-frenchentree.com/viewtopic.php?t=105769

VicMazonas

jem16 wrote: »

I expect the plan would be to use QROPS - but that is only if your father has been out of the UK for more than 5 years. Does this apply?

There has been a few threads on various ex-pats forums.

Oh I hope you're right! Thank you for this, I'll check those threads out.

jem16

VicMazonas wrote: »

Oh I hope you're right! Thank you for this, I'll check those threads out.

I think the threads will also give a mixed bag of results. Finding out more about QROPS and if that's what was used will help.

One other link is this;

http://www.aboutcabrera.com/articles/CWMQROPSGuide%20_1_.pdf

HMRC's list of QROPs

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pensionschemes/qrops.pdf

QROPs guide

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/7188812/QROPS-and-pensions-advice-for-expats.html

VicMazonas

Wow! You guys have been incredily helpful. Thank you, all of you. Looking at the pdf provided, the scheme is a recognised one.