cold call - expat pension review by De Vere Group?

njmac

I have received a cold call and follow-up email from the De Vere group offering me a free pension review as an expat living in Finland. I don't have a huge volume of money in my UK private pension and to be honest I expect I may have something in a state pension but really wouldn't know where to start checking.
I expect that they (De Vere Group) would want to advise me on a better pension plan and take a fee for this if I agree. I'm not really convinced that I want to move my pension out of the UK while the Euro is so weak against the pound.

Has anyone had any dealings with this kind of "free" offer?
thanks
nj

dunstonh

Overseas rules and laws will be different to the UK.

In the UK it is rare to find any genuine company cold calling on investment class business and those that do tend to be mostly scams. So much so that the regulator and consumer groups have issued warnings about acting on such calls.

Also, in the UK, there is no such thing as a free pension review. So, when you get a call offering such a thing, you know its a scam.

De Vere are no a scam company and dont have to follow UK standards if you are not in the UK. However, they don't have a great reputation for quality or being cost effective.

njmac

Thanks. My initial reaction was suspicion and I've found a few stories of them giving bad advice and losing big money. I wasn't sure though whether it might be a case of only the bad feedback being shouted across the internet (as is often the case).

I think I'll spend some time to review my pensions myself instead of risking dealing with this company.

Again, thanks for your input, it's very much appreciated.

eagertolearn

Are De Vere Group connected with Chase de Vere? The websites do not indicate any sort of connection. I have just invested a substantial amount of money with Chase de Vere!

bigadaj

eagertolearn wrote: »

Are De Vere Group connected with Chase de Vere? The websites do not indicate any sort of connection. I have just invested a substantial amount of money with Chase de Vere!

I wouldn't have thought so, it's true in many areas but particularly finance and investment that the first rule of setting up a dodgy company is to use what appears to be some posh English names as part of the company name.

Money at chase de very won't be at risk but you'll be getting charged handsomely for their involvement, and costs are always a part of investment returns.