cold called by Avacade offering free pension review

dunstonh

johannbradbury wrote: »

I have just received cold call from a company called avacade about looking up old pensions, wanting to come round to home or work asap for me to sign some papers, is this a scam ive never heard of them.

can anyone give me info on this company please

Read this thread. Nothing has changed. Your questions are already answered.

Berks_Saver

I indicated when filling in a form online for somthing else that I'd be interested in a free pension review
Avacade contacted me yesterday saying the same to me as the OP described
Reading this thread now has made me wary and I decided not to sign their paperwork
I'm no further forward now and not sure if I've done the right thing or not
I had a pension that I paid into up until 15yrs ago with scottish widows
After hearing nothing from them, and wanting to know its value and my options, I contacted them last year and they did send several pages of info through, but it wasn't in 'plain English' so i was still not clear on the value and my options, hence the dealings with Avacade
Perhaps I should search elsewhere on MSE for advice
Thx

dunstonh

Berks_Saver wrote: »

I indicated when filling in a form online for somthing else that I'd be interested in a free pension review
Avacade contacted me yesterday saying the same to me as the OP described
Reading this thread now has made me wary and I decided not to sign their paperwork
I'm no further forward now and not sure if I've done the right thing or not
I had a pension that I paid into up until 15yrs ago with scottish widows
After hearing nothing from them, and wanting to know its value and my options, I contacted them last year and they did send several pages of info through, but it wasn't in 'plain English' so i was still not clear on the value and my options, hence the dealings with Avacade
Perhaps I should search elsewhere on MSE for advice
Thx

Any local IFA will be able to help you.

WorldwideWealthMgt

There are some good and bad introducer companies, do your research?. All they should be doing is to book appointment for IFA's and should not give pension advice.

___________________________________________________________________
Im a MD for a wealth management company

Anything posted on this forum is for discussion purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice. Different people have different needs and what is right for one person may be different for another. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser who can advise you after finding out more about your situation.

T13MSN

I received a cold call from Avacade yesterday and got them to email me some information. They say that they are an Alternative Investment Distribution Company, whatever that means, and that most of their clients following the 'free' review invest in a SIPP. In their terms of business they are very clear that they are not FSA registered and not covered by their compensation scheme and recommend that you use the services of an IFA. Another company, called Cherish Wealth, are the ones who contact your existing scheme to obtain information.

dunstonh

They say that they are an Alternative Investment Distribution Company, whatever that means,

It means they are not regulated in the UK and are not allowed to give advice or investment recommendations in areas regulated in the UK.

and that most of their clients following the 'free' review invest in a SIPP.

That is because the SIPP is the only wrapper that allows unregulated investments. If you act outside of UK law and regulation then you are going to use products that allow that.

In their terms of business they are very clear that they are not FSA registered and not covered by their compensation scheme and recommend that you use the services of an IFA. Another company, called Cherish Wealth, are the ones who contact your existing scheme to obtain information.

The IFA firm, in theory, is only responsible for putting in place the SIPP. That in itself is easy to justify. They set up the SIPP and leave it at that.

However, we have just in the last few days been issued a compliance warning telling us not to accept pension business from these types of introducers due to extremely high levels of fraud and expectation that the FSA will not let IFAs get away with only being responsible for the SIPP when they know full well that it is going into some unsuitable scheme. A lot of these "IFAs" are actually a sister company or have a commercial link and are not actually as independent as you think. They are only IFA in name to get the SIPP set up and do nothing else. Indeed, many are not even IFAs.

In respect of this particular company (Avacade), they are not even on the FSA register as introducers.

Are you in any hurry to be ripped off? The company cold calling are in breach of FSA regulations as they are not on the FSA register as introducers. The investments are unregulated and offer no consumer protection. How many warning signs do you need?

MD2363

A bit of advice, I've just had a call from Avacade and they spoke to me as though I'd requested their assistance. Remembering that I had spoken to someone previously, I assumed they were one and the same. I gave them my DoB and my NI number before realising that they were not the same company. She said a courier would bring paperwork for me to sign authorising them to look into my pension on my behalf.... As soon as I came off the phone I looked them up and discovered this forum. I'm obviously not going to sign but am very concerned that I have given them my details above.

Can they do anything with this information???

Thanking you all in advance

dunstonh

Can they do anything with this information???

No. Thankfully, pension providers still rely on signatures before making changes or accepting instructions from your specified adviser who has to be FSA regulated.

MD2363

Thanks Dunstonh, that's put my mind at rest. I was kicking myself at how I could have been so stupid giving that information over the phone especially when I hadn't instigated the call. Usually more sensible that that!!

mania112

Is it this company? http://www.avacadeinvestments.com/

These are 'alternative' investments, in as much as they're 'alternative' to other investments as they have no protection or chance of growth.