Evestor.. should I be concerned?

numbercruncher

Have received the following by email from Evestor and wondering whether I should withdraw my funds from them completely. Looking for advice.


Good afternoon,

As you may know from my previous email, we have been working hard over the last couple of weeks to switch product provider from our current provider, Greyfriars, to a provider called Gaudi.

This has resulted in a series of complications, especially around the processing of payments and direct debit collections.

Our decision to move away from Greyfriars was based on our concerns around their operations and, in particular, the continued problems they are having with their investment management business and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The next step in this process is for us to formally switch our Direct Debit collections to our new provider. The date we have agreed for this to happen is 19th of September.

We had agreed with Greyfriars that up until the 19th September, all payments and mandates would continue to be taken as normal, then after that date they would be taken through Gaudi, our new provider.

Unfortunately, we were made aware on Friday evening that Greyfriars had agreed with the FCA not to accept any further client payments effective immediately. This means we will not be able to collect any further payments from you until the 1st of October, including any Direct Debits scheduled between now and then.

We are incredibly angry and disappointed by this and by all the mis-communications sent to us by Greyfriars throughout this process. We have been working around the clock to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible and with as little disruption as possible to you, our investors.

I must stress that your funds remain safe, secure and invested within our evestor portfolios, as usual.

What this means for you and our proposal to resolve this is as follows:
Your Direct Debits for the rest of August and September will not be taken. Normal Direct Debit collections will resume on the 1st of October 2018 and onwards.
As an investor who joined us with through our cashback offer, I can confirm to you that missing these payments will not impact your eligibility for cashback.
During this time, you can still amend your Direct Debits or set up a new lump sum Direct Debit for the 1st of October onwards to make the contributions you will miss while our Direct Debit function is paused.

We understand that this is disappointing and frustrating. Once again, I would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this has caused you.

If you have any questions about this process or would like more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our support team through the webchat on our website or by replying to this email.

Anthony Morrow
CEO of evestor
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evestor is a trading style of E-vest Adviser Services Ltd. E-vest Adviser Services Ltd is registered in England & Wales under Company Registration Number 09407280; its registered address is WeWork St. Peter’s Square, 1 St. Peter’s Square, Manchester, M2 3AE. E-vest Adviser Services Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our FCA number for evestor is 676331 and for meandmymoney is 792842. Capital is at risk with all evestor products.
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dunstonh

I'm not keen on them anyway as I feel their marketing is a bit off. They say they give free financial advice but you have to pay fees on their product. So, its not really free as it is factored into the charges and that method was outlawed in the RDR. However, there is a loophole that the less honest firms use which still allows them to fudge it where their own product is being used. Real advisers would not be allowed to say they give free advice but have a seperate fee factored into the product.

Plus, they say they can give advice within 15 minutes. That wont be proper advice. It will be flow-chart style guidance and as its only linked to their own product, all end results are going to point to a different version of their product.

Gaudi is a provider of white labelled wrappers to firms. i.e. Gaudi supply the software and infrastructure and the third party firm puts their logo on to it. It's ideal for firms with little or no capital of their own to have a more or less instant off the shelf solution with virtually no up front cost. They pay a fee to the Gaudi each month.

I am not a particular fan of many robo-advice services as most of them are losing money hand over fist and at rates that are not sustainable. There are expectations that a good number will fail and go into administration before they get a white knight to rescue them.

If you want DIY, then go with a platform and select a low cost multi-asset fund with underlying passive funds (the type frequently mentioned here). Not only safer but also cheaper.

aw77

I started one through the cash back offer. Whilst I am not put off, it’s not been a great experience. I will only be putting in what I have to, to receive the cash back this year to see how things pan out. It’s a young company so there is a bit of risk of teething problems which I knew when I took the thing out.

dunstonh

Whilst the robo-advice firms are throwing money at consumers to buy their business, it actually can make sense to pay the minimum in to get the deal and then pull out at the end of the deal period tie in.

However, if you are planning long term, then don't do it. Use a low-cost platform and low-cost multi-asset funds. It's cheaper and safer.

Aylesbury_Duck

I started a regular investment to evestor a few months ago, got two months in and started to see reduced functionality on their website. They explained what was happening (the situation covered in the letter) but couldn't give a definitive answer on when full functionality would be restored. That was enough to spook me into switching to another provider. Although I didn't intend to touch my funds for years, I didn't want the prospect of there being difficulty amending or withdrawing my investments when the time came. I think it was just poor timing that the problems arose so soon after I started with them, but I think I'll wait and see how they get on before I decide whether to use them again in future.