De Vere’s To Offer Financial Advice At FCCT – Surprise

An occasion I will be missing tonight is a seminar at the
Foreign Correspondents of Thailand by the De Vere Group.

The notice of the meeting says ‘suggested payment 200 baht
to charity’. A better one would read perhaps 200 baht to journalists!
The all charitable De Vere group has been involved in massive
internet damage limitation exercises since, well pretty much since the
internet. It employs people to flood the net with positive stories about it.
Boiler rooms have even cloned its name.
Its boss Nigel Green says the group has been falsely maligned. De Veres has been accused of employing unqualified staff, and widespread twisting and churning. 
Perhaps FCCT members can also help it out with its image problem because I
am sure they are not a target audience. Actually there is a freedom of press issue too. The South China Morning Post says De Vere’s is suing two of its staff for spilling the beans.
The consultancy has arranged for a renowned tax expert, Mr. Darren Jones of Royal Skandia, to fly in from the UK.
Responsibility
Royal Skandia is of course a well known organization into which I think they
want to place your funds.

If he is flying out especially someone has got to pay
for it – new investors or old ones.

But lest we forget Royal Skandia, Friends Provident, Royal London and others like them are the people who gave the green light to Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs) to put their clients cash into the disastrous LM funds.  Some US$400 million of clients money went into the coffers – and little or nothing is coming back.  And are they going to take responsibility? – No way. Nothing friendly or royal here.

The financial advisers blame people like Royal Skandia, Friends Provident etc and in the LM case, also the Australian Securities and Exchange Commission. People like Royal Skandia blame the financial advisers (link here). But actually they work in each others pockets (offering great packages for getting clients).

And will the Bloomberg’s or Reuters (Financial Services) correspondents be attacking them? Nah.

Many clients in Thailand and all over Asia are as a result penniless – but I guess there must be some cash left!  If there is, these guys will find it but I suspect it isn’t at the FCCT.

The FCCT states: This is not an FCCT-sponsored event. It is
a paid function and responsibility for program content is solely that of the
event organiser.



Amid allegations of ‘churning’ Hong Kong’s Confederation of Insurance Brokers refuses to licence new De Vere staff.