deVere Group's reply to: DeVere sold me a 'stable' pension in defunct Strategic Growth Fund

Dear Mr.Pitt,
We would like to reiterate how sorry we are and extremely disappointed to hear about your experience. We are aware that you had filed a formal complaint back in 2018 and already had been contacted by the Head of Risk and Compliance, stating that deVere SA operated on a different FAIS License up to beginning of 2015. This license allowed them to sell the product you had invested in. deVere changed to a different FAIS licence and were no longer able to provide advice on your product. However you had the option to deal directly with the product provider.
Regards
deVere Group
iain P

This review is from a real person who provided valid contact information and hasn't been caught misusing, spamming or abusing our website.

Verified Reviewer
| map-marker London, England

DeVere sold me a 'stable' pension in defunct Strategic Growth Fund

Like many it seems I was given misguided advice from deVere in South Africa. In particular the failed Strategic Growth Fund. This was through what was called Generali Vision and now Utmost Vision.

Having finally seen a statement today it seems my ‘Pension’ that I was being sold has lost 50% of its value in a decade.

Loss:
$10000

Preferred solution: Apology

User's recommendation: Don't use!

deVere Group's reply to: Total scam

Dear Mr.Chapman,
We are extremely sorry to hear you are not pleased with our service. As a company, we consistently strive to reach the high standards and ensure client satisfaction is upheld. As you are fully aware, we have already pointed out to you that your complaint had been fully investigated and found to be without merit. In June 2019 we asked you on a different platform, to supply evidence to support your allegations, which you did not. We cannot add anything further.
Regards
deVere Group
David C Kwt

This review is from a real person who provided valid contact information and hasn't been caught misusing, spamming or abusing our website.

Verified Reviewer

Total scam

deVere Group - Total scam
deVere Group - Total scam
deVere Group - Total scam
deVere Group - Total scam

My dissatisfaction is well documented the continuous message that DeVere strive to excel in their advice is mind blowing. Are all the contributors to this site liars ?

Again I say to De Vere ,WHAT DO THE FOLLOWING WORDS MEAN TO YOU "THIS ADVICE REPORT IS VALID FOR 3 MONTHS" .

What do DeVere do ? buy very poor high commission funds 6 months after the report expired !and without any notification whatsoever quarterly reviews hav,nt had one yet even after 4 years, TAKE A LOOK AT THE ATTACHMENTS

Loss:
$13000

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

User's recommendation: IF YOU ARE RETIRING TO SPAIN THEN KEEP AWAY FROM DEVERE THERE IS NO TAX BENEFIT UNLESS YOU ARE A MILLIONAIRE

deVere Group's reply to: Frustrated with process of getting paid surrender value of my policy!

deVere do not own any entity in SA and the client is in error, her issues are with Brite Advisors, to whom the entity was sold at the start of this year and changed its name in January.
Dineo M Bla

This review is from a real person who provided valid contact information and hasn't been caught misusing, spamming or abusing our website.

Verified Reviewer
| map-marker Dubai, Dubai

Frustrated with process of getting paid surrender value of my policy!

I sent a request to surrender my policy on the 8th of May, I was asked to send more information which did not make sense and was from an automated email with little explanations. After several emails, I sent the required information on 13th May and I am still waiting for my funds!

It's bad enough that I have lost over $29,000 but they are taking forever to repay me whatever little they claim I am entitled to. This company is a huge scam and I will definitely warn anyone and everyone about investing their hard earned cash through one of their products. The response to m initial review proves my point, how can I not know what I am talking about. When I took this policy with Devere I was based in Dubai, not South Africa.

Devere does have offices in Dubai.

I have been contacting the Dubai office to get back my money so I know what I am talking about. Instead of asking for more information they come back with a stupid response.

Loss:
$29000

Preferred solution: Full refund

User's recommendation: Do not waste your hard earned cash on them! Bunch of scanners!

deVere Group's reply to: Financial Advisor

Dear Sir/Madam,

As a company, we consistently strive to reach the high standards expected of us by our clients. Nonetheless, we do understand that issues may arise, and we are always very willing to clear up any queries or complaints our clients may have. Unfortunately, we cannot find your details as a client on our database. Therefore, would you be kind enough to make direct contact with us on clientrelations@devere-group.com to provide us with further information so that we may identify you and receive any evidence in respect of your experience?

Regards,
deVere Group
Starlene Bxy
map-marker London, England

Financial Advisor

This company accept absolutely no responsibility for their employees not honouring the promises they made when I invested the money. They offered me no advice despite the fact that they advertise themselves as investment advisors.

I still do not not know the status of the investment or whether they only exist on paper.

The local representative says he cannot advise me. No resolution at all.

User's recommendation: Do not invest

deVere Group's reply to: 5 Years I lost money and the investment companies made £6250.

Dear Mr.Powell,

We are extremely sorry to hear you are not pleased with our service. As a company, we consistently strive to reach the high standards and ensure client satisfaction is upheld. Our understanding is that you have already been contacted on a separate platform and the matter is currently being looked into. However, should you have any inquiry or require further assistance, please let us know.

Regards,
deVere Group
Stephen P Iyr

5 Years I lost money and the investment companies made £6250.

I moved my small QROPS of £58000 and 5 years later in a period of financial growth of about 10% per year I made a loss and they took £6250 in fees. How can this be legitimate.

So disappointed and a little angry. Trust once lost is never recovered.

Loss:
$23000
Pros:
  • First contact was very professional
  • Global scope
Cons:
  • Do not side with clients
  • Lack of transparency
  • Take no responsibilities for own mistakes
Reason of review:
I lost money over 5 years of them advising me. They suggested a 7% growth which would mean 58,000 would become 81,348 over 5 years.

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

deVere Group's reply to: Resolved: Appalling Quality of Financial Advisors

Dear Mr.Ednei Romano,

Our understanding is that a representative from deVere Group will make contact and shall be assisting you with your complaint. However, should you have any inquiry or require further assistance, please let us know.

Regards,
deVere Group
Resolved
EDNEI R

Resolved: Appalling Quality of Financial Advisors

Updated by user Oct 09, 2019

I was contacted by their Costumer care representative with an adequate solution to my concerns.

Original review Oct 08, 2019

It seems like I only contact by the Finacial Advisor when it is of their interest to sell new products or if I provide the contact number for potential new clients.

It is VERY DISAPPOINTING!

Cons:
  • Anything once they had my cash
  • High charges
  • Intransparent
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

deVere Group's reply to: Devere are the worst

Dear Mr.Collins,

We are extremely sorry and disappointed to hear that you are not satisfied with deVere’s services. As a company, we consistently strive to reach the high standards expected of us with our clients. Nonetheless, we do understand that issues may arise and we are always very willing to clear up any queries or complaints our clients may have. Kindly note, Client Relations will contact you directly.

Regards
deVere Group
William T Pgv

Devere are the worst

Updated by user Oct 09, 2019

Client Services for DeVere did contact me after my post on this site and investigated my complaint.Regarding my GB 14,000 + loss from the Strategic Growth fund they write that "with Hindsight and knowledge that the advice given by DeVere appeared to be poor"... Opening a new generali Savings fund in place of topping up existing fund was Suitable for my needs and that full policy details were provided.

The end paragraph from DeVere was that if I have any further evidence in my dispute they would be prepared to reconsider but if I remain dissatisfied then I should seek legal advise!In my humble view it looked like a lawyer had written the e-mail.If they had offered a gesture of good will for my losses it would have been welcomed, but they don't have the common sense to understand that I would never ever return my portfolio to Devere or recommend the company to colleagues or contacts who might ask for advise or add this damming conclusion to be shared world wide. ...….

Original review Aug 25, 2019

Several years ago DeVere moved assets in my QROPS, without approval, then lost money by opening a new savings account with Generali instead of Amending the existing simply to get commissions, I find this out at a later date when I finally found a trustworthy Adviser, but the really difficult part is DeVere keep calling me and asking me to return which is no only unprofessional but extremely annoying ..

Loss:
$13000
Cons:
  • Pressure applied by the consultant and his assistant
  • Losing pension money to an inappropriate product
  • Anything once they had my cash
Reason of review:
Bad quality

Preferred solution: Full refund

deVere Group's reply to: Generali Vision sold by deVere

Dear Mr.Krantz,

We are deeply sorry to hear that you are unhappy with our services. One of our top priorities is to ensure that client satisfaction is maintained. In the light of this, our dedicated Client Relations Department will revert back shortly on a separate platform.

Regards,
deVere Group
Olof K

Generali Vision sold by deVere

As many others i hav lost much money due to the misguided advice from deVere. In particular the failed Strategic Growth Fund, but also manual processing errors on deVere's side are main contributors.

Apparently the Generali Vision is called now Utmost Vision, without any information, and today i got informed that Utmost Wealth Solutions have made calculations mistakes and as a result must adjust my plan value down 10kEUR.

Outrageous! Can anyone be trusted in this industry?

Any advice on good legal support for this case welcome.

Loss:
$10000
Pros:
  • Good first impression
  • Keeps contact
Cons:
  • Do not side with clients
  • Take no responsibilities for own mistakes
  • Intransparent
Reason of review:
Damaged or defective

Preferred solution: Full refund

deVere Group's reply to: Unauthorized Charges to GAM Star Growth Strategy Fund C

Dear Mr.Petrozzi,

We are extremely sorry to hear you are not pleased by our service. As a company, we consistently strive to reach the high standards and ensure client satisfaction is upheld. Our understanding is that a representative from the Client Services team will make contact and shall be assisting you with your needs. However, should have any inquiry or require further assistance, please let us know.

Regards,
DeVere Group
Armando I
map-marker Manhattan, New York

Unauthorized Charges to GAM Star Growth Strategy Fund C

My name is Armando Petrozzi, with Plan Number 9402****. Invested US$62000 but now my plan value is US$52,000.

Despite the fund itseflf has shown 25% profitability in the last 5 years the value of my plan has shown LOSSES of US$9000 due to charges made by DeVere.

I have written my assigned relationship with no response.

I will wait until this week for a formal response. If negative, will start legal actions to recover the funds.

Loss:
$10
Reason of review:
Damaged or defective

Preferred solution: Full refund

deVere Group's reply to: Devere Unsolicited Calls - STOP USING LINKEDIN AS YOUR TELEPHONE BOOK

Dear Mr.Gibbs,

As a company, we consistently strive to reach the high standards for our clients. However, we understand that issues may arise and we are always very willing to clear up any queries or complaints our clients may have. Kindly confirm whether you would like our Client Services team to contact you directly to discuss the matter.

Regards,
deVere Group
Keglsd
map-marker London, England

Devere Unsolicited Calls - STOP USING LINKEDIN AS YOUR TELEPHONE BOOK

Hi,

I'm on Linked in as are many millions of others.

Like many millions of others I have moved around due to my senior roles; this is demonstrated by my role locations in my profile.

Every week I seek your people stalking my profile.

Devere - This does NOT give you the right to screen my profile, obtain my details and then continue to call every 2 weeks asking about where my pension is - I know you are doing this to many others.

I've been polite 30 times and explained NO and asked for you to remove me from your lists...only to find a different person then calling me a week later.

Completely Unprofessional. I will be speaking with LinkedIn about your practices including obtaining contact information & asking for your company to have access removed

Reason of review:
Unsolicited Calls, Using LinkedIn for Sales

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

deVere Group's reply to: Please stop calling! Your agents are rude and disingenuous

Dear Mr.Kay,

We are tremendously sorry and extremely disappointed to hear that you are not satisfied with deVere’s services. As a company, we consistently strive to reach the high standards expected of us by our clients. Nonetheless, we do understand that issues may arise and we are always very willing to clear up any queries or complaints our clients may have. Please confirm whether you would like our Client Services team to contact you directly to discuss the matter.

Regards,
deVere Group
Barnaby M
map-marker Schwalbach, Hesse

Please stop calling! Your agents are rude and disingenuous

Despite repeated requests over the last 2 1/2 years to stop and remove my name and number from their database, the cold-call team in Dubai just will not desist.

After first moving to Dubai over 2 years ago, I received a call from an agent who was very rude when I told him I wasn't looking for financial advice so I requested that no-one from de Vere contact me again.

Unfortunately, they have persisted to call my office regularly, and only today a woman called "Anna" phoned my colleague asking to speak to me and that she knew me.

When I called back, (clearly she did not know me) she made up some BS about me liking a de Vere Facebook post about UK tax advice and tried to sell their financial services.

I understand that the market is competitive but to have agents be rude when declining their services or deceptive when trying to sell services is not the way to go about it. Equally, to continue calling even after having been asked to stop has now led me to write this review.

I'm pretty sure that having requested to have my name removed from their database, still being contacted is likely to breach GDPR

Please stop, this is not the way to do business

Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Just stop calling me and remove my information from their database

deVere Group's reply to: deVere Group - Loss of strategic growth fund investment in Providence QROPS

Dear Mr.Payne,

As a company, we strive to reach high standards and make sure customer satisfaction is maintained at all times. However, we understand that issues may arise and we are always very willing to clear up any queries or complaints our clients may have. Please note our Client Relations team will contact you directly, as soon as possible.
RICHARD P Mdz
map-marker Geneva, Geneva

Loss of strategic growth fund investment in Providence QROPS

I received some unwelcome news at the beginning of Februaury from the administrators of this plan STM Malta – essentially that with little prospect of any money being realised from the assets of the suspended PLL UAM Strategic Growth Fund the value of this investment is in effect being written off.

The facts as I see them are these:

•Paul Dodds of your Geneva office invested a transfer value of £99,354.66 into this QROPs plan and of that invested roughly 15% into the strategic growth fund in two tranches: an initial £14900.20 on 17.10.2017 and £702.23 on 26.11.2012.

•Less than two months later in February 2013 it appears that the fund was suspended. This nominal investment amount has sat there in stasis ever since while charges are being incurred. It has now been written off.

•Over the past seven years then the value of this pension fund has fallen from it’s initial transfer value to approximately £94,000 despite the length and strength of the bull market since 2010.

•I do not believe I have received any guidance on the nature of the investment in the strategic growth fund nor any formal communication about this situation from deVere despite the company still being named as the advisor on this plan. There was no advice on the illiquid nature of the products this fund has invested in nor during my update conversations with Paul Dodds any communications about its suspension.

I wrote to Paul Dodds directly about this matter on 16 February 2019 by recorded delivery to the deVere office at ROute de l'Aéroport in Geneva. Interestingly the post returned my letter yesterday unopened with the notification, translated, that the receiver could not be found at this address. Paul Dodds is still named as a director on the register of commerce.

I look forward to your response.

Loss:
$20000
Cons:
  • Losing pension money to an inappropriate product
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Full refund

deVere Group's reply to: Strategic Growth (sic) Fund fiasco

Dear Mr.James,

Please send over your details and complaint to Andre Vorster andre.vorster@devere-acuma.co.za so he can assist you further. Once received, we can assure you that it will receive his urgent attention.
Skyleigh Zbs
map-marker Guildford, England

Strategic Growth (sic) Fund fiasco

Like many UK citizens living in South Africa around 2009/10 I was persuaded by DeVere SA (Tim Sant) to transfer my UK pension funds into an off-shore QROPS account. A significant portion of this was deposited into the now defunct Strategic Growth Fund. I am still paying fees as if the fund is still growing, which, as the fees are far more than the residual growth, will ultimately deplete the total value of my investment.

I have read various press articles about the SG fund fraud and dodgy dealings of DeVere executives in South Africa, and now read that, unsurprisingly, there are no recoverable assets from the Fund. To be honest I would like just to draw what little I have left in the two remaining small QROPS deposits.

My contact at DeVere in South Africa was Richard Pretorius, who no longer replies to emails. I spoke to Nathan Lennox at DeVere UK who was very helpful and explained the details of the issue around the SG fund, but which in effect was 'your f**cked!' It was not worth his while to deal with such a relatively small investment.

I will try to contact the Sovereign Trust in Guernsey directly, where my funds are managed, but not being in any way financially savvy, it would be nice if DeVere were to offer some final assistance for an unhappy former customer in order to close this sorry affair. Ian James

Loss:
$50000
Pros:
  • Assistance by nathan lennox
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

deVere Group's reply to: Devere Group Legalised robbery

Dear Mr.Morton,

We are deeply sorry to hear that you are unhappy with our services. One of our top priorities is to ensure that client satisfaction is maintained. In the light of this, our dedicated Client Relations Department will revert back shortly on a separate platform.
Thomas W Kxf
map-marker Alicante, Valenciana, Comunidad

Devere Group Legalised robbery

How can the Ombudsman sleep at night when he allows the Devere group to carry on trading? T.W.M.

Loss:
$18000
Pros:
  • Initial contact
Cons:
  • Anything once they had my cash
Reason of review:
Bad quality

Preferred solution: Full refund

deVere Group's reply to: Strategic Growth Fund Disaster

As a company, we consistently strive to reach the high standards and ensure client satisfaction is upheld. However, we do understand that issues may arise and we are always very willing to clear up any queries or complaints our clients may have. Our Client Relations Department is currently in contact with Mr.Bennaceur dealing with his complaint.
Kamel B Fbx
map-marker Abu Dhabi, Abu Zaby

Strategic Growth Fund Disaster

In 2010, my wife and I received a request from the DeVere representative handling the account to switch a significant part of the mutual funds we had to a group of new funds. This included allocating a quarter of the proceeds to the Strategic Growth Fund.

Three years later, came the debacle which over the last 4 years became a disaster, as it is now almost sure that we have no chance of money recovery. Therefore, under the advice of DeVere, we lost at least a quarter of our savings.

We have contacted DeVere officially, and their response has been simply shocking, denying first any involvement from DeVere, and when confronted with the facts, recommending to seek legal advice !!!

Loss:
$70000
Cons:
  • Losing quarter of funds to a scam compared to a ponzi scheme
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution