I do think that you should complain to the MFSA asap…not that it’ll get you anywhere, but so far there are 41 official complaints being ‘investigated’ by the MFSA regarding the PATF No.2 fund sold by GLOBAL CAPITAL so maybe if the numbers are high enough it might decide to do something about it. In the meantime I have bombarded the press with letters though at one point GLOBAL CAPITAL threatened a particular newspaper with a legal warning and my last letter was not published. We have put forward our complaint to the MFSA in February of 2009 – more than 2 1/2 years ago and so far have not had any reply re their ‘investigations’. I have ALSO filed a complaint against the MFSA with the Office of the OMBUDSMAN as we feel that the MFSA is dragging its feet and treating us unfairly. If you’d like to contact me I’m on Facebook as I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave my email address here. Thanks Marylou and I apologise for the late reply.

Marylou Dingli malta

AND WE THOUGHT WE WERE ALONE IN THIS…

I know where my money is and it’s nowhere near this crock of ****. My IFA would probably still be telling me about how positive the fund is in ‘the long run’ I didn’t listen to him – don’t listen to yours if they’re spinning the same BS. Get out, stay out and go to the FOS to restore what’s rightfully yours.

My post above yours is the way I did it – are you based in the UK? Other countries may have different regulatory bodies.

John

You don’t say where you are or what relevant authorities regulate the market/territory where you live. Certainly in the UK you are free to follow the path I did and complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Just observe the rules, and keep the faith and you hopefully should prevail. I cannot comment on the accusations others have made here about the PATF/PATFs/Abacus funds being ponzi-like schemes, but I do know I bitterly regret ever being involved with them, and I can see that now they’re creeping up at such a low rate (I think it works out at 2.23% annually based on the latest monthly postings) your money would be safer and earning faster in an ISA, or spread across a number of high interest accounts.

Good luck!

The basis of my complaint was the IFA concealed the risks of NAV to NRV valuation, the redemption gate, and advised me to stay in during the Autumn of 2008 when I wanted to get out thereby delivering me into the crash. Strangely enough, all of those were rejected in one way or another but the decision still went my way.

The basis of the judgement was that the FOS felt I was over-exposed in one investment and should have been advised to put only 20% in. The basis of the award was that they calculated the value of the bond (I stayed in until recently which has positive tax implications) and what I would have received had I placed the money in a normal deposit account. I had to take the losses on the 20% and they calculated a reasonable return on the 80% Shaking all that through meant an award of nearly the maximum they could award.

I would advise anyone in our position to firstly complain to their IFA and follow their complaints procedure to the letter. Within (and this is most important) six months of their final letter, complain to the FOS and make sure you get referred through to a TEP fund specialist. Keep all of your documentation. If you can log all phone calls to your IFA and summarise them so much the better. I always write following a phone call with my summary afterwards – if they don’t dispute it then your letter will count as an accurate record.

Above all, be patient. The FOS will ask you lots of questions, and will re-visit subjects over and over again. It’s part of the process and generally a good sign.

Now as to whether to stay in or out. I waited until I’d won my case and accepted the compensation before leaving the bond and that has tax advantages, If I’d already left then the award may have been taxable.. You have to weigh up the tax gains against risk of another NRV valuation. The large gains we saw in 2009 have largely petered out now and I jumped out as soon as I could. I gave the sell order on December 6th, the deal was done Jan 1st and I received the cash Feb 4th – nearly two months. It’s still creeping up but I have no insight as to whether that’s real gains or just someone nudging the lever a little each month to head further towards NAV. Of course we have no idea either where NAV is – it may already have reached it.

Anyway I wish you all the best of luck, and remember IFA’s don’t give a damn about you, so don’t hesitate to take them on and take them down, I did and won. The FOS were pretty remarkable and did a brilliant job.

I have redeemed my investment at a significant loss because I do not believe in entrusting people with my money if they can just unilaterally decide one day that they owe me 30% less than the day before and they do not even have the decency to back up their decision with relevant prove or a proper explanation. These people continue to pay themselves and their organizations fees in spite of the investors taking such losses. Investors have no means to sanction – FSC/Ombudsman etc. etc. all do not want to take action.

I maintain, this is a ****. Probably the most effective avenue that is open to disgruntled investors is to alert the regulators in the jurisdictions where PATF is offered to local investors to blacklist it and to get the regulators to sanction the organizations that continue to market it to their investors.

In fact the news isn’t all bad. The fund has actually gone up a significant amount over the year (from an admittedly low base) and if the NRV was restored then things would look a great deal brighter. Losses certainly, but not disastrous ones.

What I can’t work out is why they don’t set a timetable for this, and get the investors back in to float this thing upwards again. A large number of the assets, the actual policies themselves, will start to pay out in the near future. Indeed the increasing traffic on the web (I have Google alerts out there) seems to imply they are heavily selling the TEP bond again, and a recovery like the post 2001 (or 2002) nrv seems on the cards.

BTW I’m not a plant, I am a geniune investor, genuinely hopeful of a way out of this one! Good luck to us all.