One of the worst things about doing my job is seeing people being fleeced without being able to do anything about it.
I know that Katie Morley feels the same way – I can feel it when she’s writing about fraud. It must be particularly galling for Katie to discover that the articles that she is writing to prevent people being ripped off by unscrupulous villains in the Middle East are being used as a smokescreen of concern by.. unscrupulous villains in the Middle East.
I can’t tell you who these unscrupulous villains are as I might be seen to be “tipping them off”.but they’re the usual crew in new clothes.
Robbers will be robbers and cops will be cops and it’s all a bit keystone in Dubai and the Emirates.
Which is why the Pensions Regulator has decided to spend time engaging, educating and empowering people to stick two fingers up at the villains, rather than get on his camel.
I am not at all sure why I should be helpless. God helps them who help themselves, especially when they’re helping themselves to a big fat slice of someone else’s pension.
Maybe the shark has the right to eat me…
Maybe I’d be better off on the rob – in the dunes or wherever professional pension robbers hide out. Is this pension robbery state sponsored pension terrorism.Are Bin Laden’s kith and kin now dressing up in ISIS headgear to fill the caliphate’s treasure store with the infidel’s retirement savings?
I’d have some kind of God on my side, and not be skulking ignominiously in silence, afraid to tell what I know for fear I made things worse.
And there’s no dove from above that I can call down to peck these poxy pension pickpockets.
So i really am helpless and not helping myself much by going on about it.
There’s a shark in the house and there’s a scorpion in those dunes.
The scorpion’s scurrying about right now and he’s after your savings. Keep your eyes peeled, don’t get stung-
If it offers you a “free review “,
that scorpion is after you.
A client of mine in Abu Dhabi asked about QROPS, I told him not to transfer his UK pension, seems like he had already done it, despite the fact he was returning to the UK in three years. The scorpion got him.
Such is life. Maybe if people stop looking to avoid tax and instead look at investments/pensions for what they actually do/invest in they would not get scammed. All fraudulent activity is reprehensible and very few people deserve to be scammed but there are far too many scammers in the UK to worry about unregulated markets in undemocratic countries.
A moment to decide- a lifetime to replant- a shame!
The number of scammers is indicative of investor confusion, the high amounts of money and peoples greed. We cannot protect everyone- just improve the numbers