QROPS - Help is this dodgy?

jamesd

Malta and Cyprus can be fine. The problem isn't the place, it's the sort of investments that get used as a result of cold calls, the exploitative end of the market.

Never deal with any financial firm as a result of a cold call. That's not just what we write here, it's also what the FCA says.

Generali

From the Portia Finance website:

Portia Financial is a trading name of Hudson Clark Limited. We are not regulated or authorised by the FCA.

So your mate is proposing to give his life savings to a firm that is, apparently, entirely unregulated that cold called him.

Get your mate to do what he can to get out of this.

These firms are the scum of a pretty dodgy industry. It takes quite a bit to be the worst of the financial services industry.

Kit_Carson

Generali wrote: »

From the Portia Finance website:



So your mate is proposing to give his life savings to a firm that is, apparently, entirely unregulated that cold called him.

Get your mate to do what he can to get out of this.

These firms are the scum of a pretty dodgy industry. It takes quite a bit to be the worst of the financial services industry.

This firm has links to the Capita Oak pension liberation scam. No one has made any money as guaranteed and no one can transfer out.

Generali

Kit_Carson wrote: »

This firm has links to the Capita Oak pension liberation scam. No one has made any money as guaranteed and no one can transfer out.

As someone who has worked in Finance for 2 years I think what you mean is these people are thieving scum who should have their pockets lined with silver and then drowned in the Thames.

MikeyBhoy67

Hi All,

Just a quick thank you for all your comments as my mate has an IFA involved who by the sounds of it will be able to get the funds back from Harbour and back into the UK into something far more legit and controllable.

If I hear anything else I shall post again.

Best regards

Mike

atush

Let us know

DaveMac23

I've done some looking and it appears that both firms check out.

Portia Financial do not handle any of the funds and as such are not required to be regulated. They do work with regulated IFAs.

You may be interested to know that following recent changes at the HMRC, literally thousands of schemes have been removed from it's QROPS list. This is updated twice a month and those on the list are constantly audited and are have to be fully compliant, including constant reporting to HMRC to remain on such list.

.gov.uk/government/publications/list-of-qualifying-recognised-overseas-pension-schemes-qrops

Harbour Pensions do feature on the latest list and therefore is subject to the aforesaid audits and reporting. They are also regulated by the MFSA and clients with pensions in Harbour are subject to the same level of tax as those in the UK.

They will not however be hit with 55% tax bill as Harbour Pensions do not release funds to clients before the age of 55 (This is known as they feature on the latest QROPS list: HMRC have conducted all relevant checks and part of those checks was the Pension Age Test.).

Hope I have been of help.

Aegis

DaveMac23 wrote: »

I've done some looking and it appears that both firms check out.

Portia Financial do not handle any of the funds and as such are not required to be regulated. They do work with regulated IFAs.

I don't handle any of my clients' funds directly, but I'm still required to be authorised in order to intermediate between my clients and the recommendations I make. Not being regulated while enticing clients to transfer their pensions is generally perceived as extremely dubious at best and outright illegal at worst.

Can you confirm what you did to check that Portia Financial checked out?

atush

And indeed tell us if you work for them?

turner_pg

Has anyone had any experience with Charter Cross based in Dubai. They phoned me out of the blue to offer me a QROPS pension in Malta. Not sure whether to proceed.

Has anyone else used them?