To show just how hard it is for the Pensions Regulator and FCA to patrol and control pension transfers from UK pensions, read this. It is appearing to UK readers of UK websites but emanates from the UAE, where the unauthorised Carby is free to scaremonger at will.
While Carby is in the UAE , her company, Holborn Asset Management has a regulated entity in the UK . This is from their Linked in Showcase Page
Holborn Assets UK is part of the Holborn Assets Group of companies. Holborn Assets UK is fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is based in Sale, Cheshire.
What Carby is up to is known as lead generation. She finds vulnerable expatriates. Here is an example, taken from Carby’s testimonial page
Michele Carby is fantastic in every way. I’m a disaster when it comes to money and when she went away, I returned to being a disaster. She makes everything ok and makes the minefield of financial management manageable. She is entirely trustworthy and decent and I’d trust her with everything I have. So now she manages me long-distance and I’m so glad because I could never find anyone like her to do the same job with the same commitment and enthusiasm.
Well – this is not fantastic in any way – and it’s taken from Carby’s latest blog
New figures have emerged that shows pension liabilities have reached £7.6 trillion. This vast sum is made up of both public and private sector pension pots. This is worrying news as it is quite possible that should your employer or one of your previous employers run into difficulties, your pension could be lost in a ‘black hole’.This is an increase of £1 trillion over the period of 2010 to 2015. £5.3 trillion are the responsibility of central and local government. This figure represents 279% of gross domestic product (GDP). £4 trillion of this is unfunded state pensions.
If your pension was accumulated in the private sector using a workplace defined benefit scheme, then you may well be concerned that £2 trillion of liabilities exists here. This represents 124% of GDP
This is total codswallop and serves only to confuse the most vulnerable into a course of action which becomes clear a paragraph later.
These alarming, unfathomable figures make unpleasant reading but it is not all bad news. With good financial planning, you can move your pension to better performing funds, which negate the pension void that seems to plague both the public and private sectors.
Every day it seems clear that regardless of which sector you work in, your employer may have other plans for your pension pot than what you were led to believe. Click here and complete the Call Back Service form so we can help you put your funds in the right place.
In the middle of all this are various quotes – taken out of context from pension lawyers, Citywire and even the DWP, serving to give spurious legitimacy to the central message.
This kind of juxtaposition is a common tactic of the lead generator, they can do this with impunity – because the people quoted do not have the time and energy to shut the likes of Carby up.
Why this matters.
If anyone were in any doubt about the destination of the money transferred into Holborn Assets, they should simply place Holborn into Angie Brooks’ website. Better still, read this.
The FCA now advertise their having a global sandbox. This means they can offer help to start ups whose activities cover more than one regulatory jurisdiction. I approve greatly!
If only they could go global on Holborn Assets and make sure that the Holborn Assets Group of Companies, stopped the UAE contingent from delivering this complete nonsense to UK websites and to UK expats around the globe.
If the UAE wants the respect of our FCA, it should work to stop our vulnerable citizens being pestered by the likes of Carby. If the FCA are prepared to regulate Holborn in the UK, then they need to look at the lead generation that is happening outside the UK. If Carby are to convert any of the UK DB leads they generate into cash, they will need a UK pension transfer specialist to recommend the transfer,
The Pensions Regulator and the FCA should be looking very hard at whoever is doing that job.
And if you were in any doubt – read this claptrap on Carillion (absolutely true because she read it in the Daily Mail).
I see she is no longer active on the UK’s FS register and the only other firm she appears to have been at was St James Place until 2012 and left when RDR came in. Real click bate for citywire readers.