Many of us have fond memories of Friends Provident. It ran the first accessible stewardship fund in the UK , fore-running environmental, social and governance issues.
It was a quaker company with its roots in 18th century mutuality and philanthropy. It was friendly and it was provident and it was trusted.
The twenty first century progeny – and the sole bearer of the Friends Provident name. is Friends Provident International. This organisation is in the Isle of Man and is currently stands accused of peddling within its life insurance wrappers, nefarious funds that have lost savers millions of pounds.
Standing shoulder to Shoulder with Friends Provident International is the sad remains of another great British mutual, the Equitable Life – now trading in the Isle of Man as Utmost once owned by Generali and now owned by Quilter International (formerly Old Mutual, formerly Skandia).
The Isle of Man stands amazed
Behind the headlines are the sad tales of more lives ruined , falling a prey to the trust of the legacy of trust built up by Friends Provident and Equitable Life over 200 years and now being sadly abused.
Behind these bastard offshoots of once great insurers is the International Finance Group. This organisation also owns what once was Clerical Medical and a variety of other insurers and trust companies all of which are stabled in Castletown. It even has in Ardan , the legacy of SJP (Rowan Dartington’s) offshore platform.
IFGL has produced this short video designed to help its current and potential customers to invest with confidence
But that confidence looks set to be tarred with a single brush. The tar is about to hit the fan, or at least the Isle of Man courts of justice.
More than 700 investors, many who lost their life savings, are set to take these two insurance giants to court in a £100m compensation battle.
The class action is being taken against island-based Friends Provident International and Utmost International Isle of Man (not an IFG company) , with the trial at Douglas High Court due to begin on Monday (April 6) and scheduled to last seven weeks.
I will be bringing you progress of this offshore scamming trial over the course of this trial with some hope that
- The trial will expose the isle of man insurance companies for the under-regulated, over-intermediated and craven entities they are.
- Savers will avoid them and those advisers who recommend their wrappers.
- We get proper ownership of offshore life companies so that they can carry on their legitimate business with an eye to the customer as well as the shareholder.
My correspondent, who has sent me the headlines and this article, is promising me a case study which I hope to publish shortly. For now , here is how the money appears to have been lost.
Thanks to Isle of Man Today
Claimants, mainly British nationals and expats based across the world, say they were sold life assurance products which they were told were safe and low risk – but were based on investment funds which ultimately collapsed.
It’s the same old story and these claimants believed in their advisers , the reputations of the life companies and the probity of the Isle of Man regulator as thousands have done before.
Even after the underlying funds collapsed, it is alleged that the companies continued to charge some investors management fees on their worthless products.
No fewer than 739 investors are involved in the class action – 315 in the Friends Provident proceedings and 425 in the claim against Utmost.
As the investments were made via island-based subsidiaries, investors had no recourse through UK regulators.
The sordid back-story
Sadly , news of FPI and Utmost International’s most recent customer issues comes as no surprise to those who study the fate of those who put their trust in our offshore dependencies.
Readers may remember the ill-treatment of Manita Khuller in the Courts of Guernsey
It is alleged that scamming happens on our Crown Dependencies because of the importance of financial services companies to local economies and the relative weakness of local regulators and legal process. To an extent the life companies and these local economies are inter-dependent and neither can allow the other to fail.
These scamming insurers are well known to this blog and to fellow blogger Angie Brooks. Utmost International and Friends Provident International ranked 2 and 3 respectively in Pension Life’s “Top three worst life offices ” (or “death offices as Brooks calls them). Since Old Mutual International and Utmost International are now one business, this court action may be considered a vindication for Brooks’ years of campaigning against all three.
