deVere Group's reply to:

Devere Group stole my family's money

deVere takes all complaints very seriously and has a team of fully qualified advisers who are dedicated to providing a high quality service. Having checked our records, we can see that no formal complaint has been made by either Mrs Preston or her husband, who is a joint policy holder. Furthermore, at no time has deVere received any of the clients’ monies, and as per their own admission, the monies were paid to Generali. All the forms and requirements to surrender the product are those of Generali. Mrs Preston has been made fully aware of the outstanding requirements from Generali which were provided directly to her husband by email on 17/07/18. As such, there is nothing deVere can do in this regard until either the client or her husband produces the necessary documentation in full. If you wish to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to email us on csvhelp@devere-group.com.

ID
#1305989 Review #1305989 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Cons
  • Fraud the company is trying to commit against my family
Reason of review
FRAUD
Loss
$105000
Preferred solution
Release of my full surrender value immediately.
New Reviewer

My husband and I purchased a Generali "Vision Plan" #9403**** in Abu Dhabi through Devere Group, in July 2013. We are Americans who were both consulting in the UAE at the time.

For the past 9 weeks (starting on 5/21/18), we have been trying to cash out our policy, having been fully paid in all fees and having an account in good standing. Devere Group and Generali REFUSE to release the the full surrender value of our plan, despite us following every ridiculous instruction.

The Devere Acuma group in Abu Dhabi (evalyn.gomez@***e-acuma.com and jason.ambayec@***e-group.com

Tel: +971 * 509 ****, Mobile:+971 52 9** **39) required an ENORMOUS amount of forms and documentation, all originals with original signatures, to be couriered to Abu Dhabi. Evalyn and Jason received the documents, confirmed that the documents were all correct, and stated that they will forward the documents to Generali in Ireland. Then the Ireland HQs REFUSED to speak to us.

They received the documents and claimed that they were not the right documents. They (Thomas at international number 00253906****) further claimed that the plan we clearly have is illegal to purchase in the UAE. Therefore Devere broke the law selling it to us despite accepting our $3600US monthly payments for nearly 4 years. Thomas further stated that "he doesn't care what we were told." I think that is a side scam, b/c they are still asking for a completely different set of documents such as an original active lease, original utility bill, drivers' license, and a certified copy of my husband's passport...ALL TO PROVE OUR ADDRESS is what Thomas said.

I have DOZENS of emails to prove our experience with Generali and Devere. We are initiating a lawsuit against Generali and Devere for refusing to release the full surrender value of our policy.

deVere Group's reply to:

Totally untrustworthy compliance as i understand does not exist

At deVere Group, we pride ourselves on customer satisfaction, which is why we have a dedicated client relations team. We have thoroughly investigated this complaint and found it to be without merit. Nevertheless, we have had extensive contact with the client to try and resolve any issues and make him aware of his options. If the client has any new evidence to produce then we wold be happy to review the matter again. Should there be any further queries at this stage, we encourage you to contact us at csvhelp@devere-group.com.
ID
#1302411 Review #1302411 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Reason of review
Poor customer service
New Reviewer

qrops de vere did not declare the biggest fees and the advisor by his own admission did not know of the spreads , initial fees that The trustee applied . the 30 day cooling off period in reality was 9 days had it been sent. In reality it was sent by email 60 days after the 30 day cooling off period expired. in addition the De Vere advisor falsified my signature no less than 3 times.

De Vere response to that statement was that a international handwriting expert was required

Total loss 11,000 in 30 months, compliance seemed not existent

Nor was the DE VERE advisor truly independent in that he had only high charging funds to choose from

deVere Group's reply to:

A simple question for deVere

Dear Mr Sheppard,

deVere Group provides expert independent financial advice to clients all over the world and we take pride in offering a high-quality service, so we take all complaints very seriously. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused and can confirm that you have been placed on a do not call list to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
ID
#1301537 Review #1301537 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Cons
  • Persistent calls
Reason of review
Cold Calling
New Reviewer

Over the years, I have noticed that they come in waves - Continuous cold contact from people in different European offices in deVere group. Mail, LinkedIn and phone calls in double digit numbers per day.

Persistent contact that does not take notice that that one is simply not interested in their services, nor a long winded discussion as to why.

Such persistence implies that the company's interests are based on a deal and not my personal well being.

Having never once provided my contact details to deVere, having changed phone number to avoid cold calls, and not having ever consented to deVere calling me, I would like to know how one can arrange to have one's contact details definitively removed from the groups numerous databases.

A simple question to which one hopes to receive a simple, timely and concise response.

To head off the standard, one is tired of being told to "tell the person calling to place you on the DNC list". The person calling has zero interest and my interest is to not be on any list in deVere, yet alone an ignored "do not call" list.

deVere Group's reply to:

QROPS pension ... lost £150,000

At deVere Group, we pride ourselves on customer satisfaction, which is why we have a dedicated client relations team. Having checked our records, we can see that no formal complaint has been made. However, we can confirm that a member of our team will be in contact with you immediately to investigate this matter further and to try and resolve any issues you may be having. Should you have any queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us at csvhelp@devere-group.com.
ID
#1291480 Review #1291480 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Reason of review
Bad quality
Loss
$200000
Preferred solution
Full refund
New Reviewer

Colin Kneale, a senior partner with deVere Group (Geneva) called me in August 2010, telling me he understood I was a British citizen now resident in Switzerland.

He asked whether I had pension savings back in the UK and, if so, with how many different institutions. I confirmed that I did, and explained these funds were spread across four different funds.

He then told me that I could benefit from the QROPS programme, established by law in the UK in 2006, which allowed UK citizens no longer resident in the UK to move their pension savings into offshore accounts that met specific criteria. He explained that by doing this, I could consolidate those various savings into a single account, making things easier to manage and make my money “work harder”.

I agreed to meet him to discuss.

At that meeting, he asked me to provide details of my UK pension accounts and to sign a letter authorising him to act on my behalf. I did this.

A few months later, he told me that my UK pension funds had been consolidated and had a total value of £154,947.

He then asked what level of risk I was willing to take with those funds and I explained, several times, that as these were my pension savings, my appetite for risk was very low.

Colin recommended a plan with Providence Capital, the trustees of which were Sovereign Trust Limited. He assured me this investment was low risk, ideal for pensions as it would ensure the funds kept pace with inflation. The fund was established in February 2011. Of the £154,947, Providence Capital invested £153,197 in a bond with Royal Skandia International and deducted £1,750 for first year Trustee fees.

Royal Skandia subsequently invested those funds in Four Elements Strategic Growth Plus securities.

In March 2012 I received a valuation of the fund for year end 2011 which showed a slight decline to £145,684. At the end of 2012, the fund had reduced to £134,130 . At the end of 2013, the valuation was £109,087. At no time did anyone from deVere advise me to move my funds elsewhere. By the time I received the 2013 statement and sought to do so, I was told the account had been frozen. Today, it appears there is virtually no hope of recovering any of my savings.

Given that (a) this entire event was prompted by an unsolicited call from a deVere agent, (b) I gave specific instruction that the investment vehicle for my pension savings be low risk and (c) at no time did deVere advise me to move the fund's elsewhere (advice that was offered to other clients), I believe deVere has failed in its duty of care. I would therefore ask the company to restore my pension fund to its start value, as defined in the annual valuation certificate I receive from Sovereign Trust.

Many thanks

deVere Group's reply to:

Deveres response that my claim has no merit. I disagree Mr Offen miss sold the FOUR ELEMENTS GROWTH PLUS FUND, by not disclosing the full facts. Mr Kerswell tried to hide the fact that the fund was su

Further to Mr Rauber’s various reviews, we repeat that his claim has been fully investigated and found to be without merit.
ID
#1289776 Review #1289776 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Reason of review
Poor customer service
Loss
$400000
Preferred solution
Full refund
New Reviewer

You claim " go to the regulator" who is your full regulator in Switzerland. Yes I have gone to Polyreg you claim is your regulator, but they claim only to be responsable for money laundering.

If Devere can not agree with this finding then please tell me and everybody in Switzerland who is the full regulator.

Deveres response that my claim has no merit. I disagree Mr Offen miss sold the FOUR ELEMENTS GROWTH PLUS FUND, by not disclosing the full facts. Mr Kerswell tried to hide the fact that the fund was suspended and even tried to pay my pension out of a totally different account, this is not only incompetent that is fraud. Deveres complaints department Juliette Vincent claimed to my Trustees that my QROPS pension setup was up by 17.5% this was an outright lie.

In fact it was 22% down and suspended. I believe my claim of the full refund has merit.

I demand a full refund of £ 212000

New Reviewer
deVere Group's reply to:

Devere has lost me my QROPS pension with a investment of over £212000 The FOUR ELEMENTS GROWTH PLUS FUND is a fraud right at the top of Devere

Mr Rauber made a similar complaint of deVere Group on 14th February 2017, which was fully investigated and found to be without merit. There is little more we can add to our previous findings, although we will summarise again in hopes of clearing this issue up. We...
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ID
#1288130 Review #1288130 is a subjective opinion of poster.
deVere Group's reply to:

Personal Data Breach & Strategic Fund suspension lack of updates

At deVere Group, we pride ourselves on customer satisfaction, which is why we have a dedicated clients relations team. Having checked our records, we can see that no formal complaint has been made. However, we can confirm that an adviser will be in contact with you immediately to resolve any issues you may be having and to give you an update on your investments. Should you have any queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us at clientrelations@devere-group.com.
ID
#1280636 Review #1280636 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Reason of review
Bad quality
Preferred solution
Let the company propose a solution
New Reviewer

In the last year I had had already 3 advisors in Devere. Their advice has been poor and It made me invest -despite the fact I was not looking for much risk- in the Strategic Growth Fund that has been suspended since 2013. I have not received any updates on this since more than years now.

Last month my advisor (Mark Gibson) from Devere left the company along with his assistant. After that I received an email from them from a Hotmail email account to try to get in touch with me! probably they wanted me to do business with them outside the company. My Personal information was taken and now it is who knows where!!!! I find this disgusting!!! I am going to take legal action against devere for all this!!!

So far I had had only loses in my investments of almost 10 years! I can not recommend this company to anybody! I want now to suspend Devere as my advisor for good! Do not trust them!

Miguel Mena.

deVere Group's reply to:

Cold calling my employer - harassment!

We take pride in our reputation and would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention! We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused and can confirm that your name and contact details have been added to a ‘do not call’ list on our database. Please do not hesitate to contact us again should you have any other queries.
ID
#1272219 Review #1272219 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Reason of review
Poor customer service

Over the past twelve months I have had at least six calls at my employer's office by deVere group staff (from the Munich and Frankfurt office, apparently) who have found my details on LinkedIn. They claim that they want to make me an offer, and check the relevance of the offer.

So why don't they contact me on LinkedIn if they stalk me there anyway? I can read messages, and assess the relevance in that way, too. Why call my employer? I have repeatedly said that I do not wish any more calls, and that it is inappropriate to call my employer.

It bothers my colleagues, it is cutting into my working time. This is harassment.

Severe professional misconduct. Stop these calls!

New Reviewer
deVere Group's reply to:

Unethical contact

Dear Ms Francis, Thanks for your message. We would like to apologise on behalf of Michael for having contacted your employer in order to get hold of your details. This is definitely not our company policy and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you....
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ID
#1262315 Review #1262315 is a subjective opinion of poster.
deVere Group's reply to:

It cant be to pay feas for 70% this is a fraude

Hi Reiner,

Please send over your details and complaint to our Client Relations team at clientrelations@devere-group.com so we can assist you further.

Once received, we can assure you that it will receive our urgent attention.

ID
#1243786 Review #1243786 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Pros
  • 10 years with out service
  • And i lost my many
Reason of review
Return, Exchange or Cancellation Policy
Loss
$19000
Preferred solution
Full refund
New Reviewer

I have canceled today my account by deVEre and the want what we pay 70% feas for the cancelation!!!!! What seems to me me like a fraude! 10years they never contaced us or help us with our account. 10 years with out emails foncalls or personal contact! but in the moment what cancelt the account what a biti!!!!

What is not a company to trust!

Hi Reiner,

I can direct you to the relevant team to fully surrender your policy but you should note the following. Your current value is xxxxxxx EUR and if you fully surrender you will receive XXXXX EUR (less when 30%) meaning you will lose approximately XXXXX EUR (70% FEES). If you are still happy to proceed with a full surrender let me know and I will ask the team to begin the process for you. However if you would like to discuss your options then I am available to call you today. Thank you.

Kind regards,

Rushan Silva

Rushan Silva| Client Services Associate

------------------------------------------------------------

Direct line: +356 **** ****

Direct Email: rushan.silva@***e-group.com

deVere Group Global Client Services

Tel: +356 **** ****

Email: csvhelp@***e-group.com

Website: www.devere-group.com

deVere Group's reply to:

Iyad Hayel Stay away from us

We take pride in our reputation, so thank you for bringing this to our attention! We apologise for any inconvenience caused and can assure you that we will be contacting the individual to ensure this situation gets resolved.
Furthermore, in order to stop this practice continuing, we would urge you to provide all the evidence you have and send it to our legal department on legal@devere-worldwide.com, so we can work with local regulators and law enforcement to prevent this happening again.
ID
#1131656 Review #1131656 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Reason of review
Poor customer service

He is continuing to call us saying he works for deVere. He has been asking for money.

He now goes by Ian. please do something about this guy. He has called us repeatedly asking for money. then he offered us some internet deals saying he has gold connections around the world.

He also claims to work with Lux and Swiss banks. He then said he can open accounts for us where we can invest every month. We said no because we realize he is a conman. Stay away from Iayd Hayel, he is a vile toxic person that lies and cheats.

Please check because he is still using DeVere business cards. you must take this vile person to court.

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
New Reviewer
deVere Group's reply to:

DeVere have lost my wife and I a lot of money and caused us a lot of stress

Dear Mr Keown, Further to your original complaint on Pissed Consumer, we have raised your queries with the respective teams who have both been in contact with you in the meantime. Additionally, external lawyers acting on behalf of deVere Group have also made contact...
View full review
ID
#1113449 Review #1113449 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Location
Dubai, Dubai
deVere Group's reply to:

DeVere have lost my wife and I a lot of money and caused us a lot of stress

As part of our high-quality service, deVere Group ensures clients understand all details relating to their investments and also provide regular updates on their performance. In this particular case, our dedicated Client Relations Department is now working with the client to resolve any issues they are having, not only with regards to the fund mentioned above, but their whole portfolio. We take all complaints very seriously, so should you have any further concerns, please feel free to email the team again on clientrelations@devere-group.com as they will be more than happy to assist you accordingly.
ID
#1097655 Review #1097655 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Reason of review
Bad quality

deVere has lost my wife and I a lot of money and caused us a lot of stress. They convinced us to purchase policies with a large portion of assets under the Strategic Growth Fund.

Need I say more? These assets are now frozen (we were not warned in time to pull out in time like many others were) and if we surrender the policies we will forfeit the frozen funds and be charged a ridiculous "early surrender" fee which we were initially told will only apply if we surrender in the first 7 or 8 years, which have now passed. If that is not all bad enough, we were initially told that there are ongoing fees associate with having the accounts, but not exactly how much. We were lead to believe that these fees were not very high.

Now, after so many years or poor performance (more or less constantly, not just during the financial crisis or other generally accepted poor periods), we have now finally found out from one of deVere's competitors (not from deVere themselves, who we had asked many times but who avoided the question), that we are paying 4.64%/annum, 2.78%/annum and 7.14%/annum for the 3 policies! In the 10 year period that we have been losing money with investment sold to us by deVere, world developed market equities have risen 110%!!!

deVere Group's reply to:

Lost 22,500 Euro to Devere and Generali

DeVere Group provides expert independent financial advice to clients all over the world. Our fully-qualified advisers work closely with clients to help them choose the best investments tailored to their individual needs to help maximise their capital and income.

As part of our high-quality service, we ensure clients understand all details relating to their investments and also provide regular updates on their performance. In this particular case, our dedicated Client Relations Department have already made contact and have provided evidence to show that the product details together with the full and comprehensive details of the terms and conditions were indeed provided. Should you have any further concerns, please feel free to email the team again on clientrelations@devere-group.com as they will be more than happy to assist you accordingly.
ID
#1050596 Review #1050596 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Pros
  • First contact was very professional
Cons
  • Product sold was a scam
Reason of review
The product is a scam
Loss
$22500
Preferred solution
Full refund

Devere sold me a Generali Vision plan and made a huge commission. What they didn't tell me was that I was locked in for 25 years with a minimum payment of 1,000 euro per month.

When I tried to cancel after 2-3 years I lost 22,500 euro of the money I had put in (the savings were worth 30,000 euro at the time). I admit that I didn't read the small print but that's not the point.

The issue is that Devere Group provides advise based on maximising their own commission and not based on selling good investment products to the customer. Most index funds will make a lot more money over a 25 year period considering the fees of these funds.

deVere Group's reply to:

Devere & partners / Generali

deVere Group prides itself in providing expert and personalised financial advice to clients around the world.

As one of the world’s leading independent financial services organisations, deVere Group does not directly deal with clients’ money but only provides the best possible financial advice to suit your needs. Therefore, only Generali would receive money directly from a client for their investment.

Having gone through our records, we have been unable to locate your details. However, you are more than welcome to contact our dedicated client relations team and provide them with your Generali policy number for reference so that we may try to resolve your issues.
ID
#1046013 Review #1046013 is a subjective opinion of poster.
Cons
  • Being lied to
  • Being scammed out of 11600 euros
Reason of review
Bad quality
Loss
$11600
Preferred solution
Full refund

I was scammed out of several thousands of euros by Devere & Partners, who sold me a so-called Generali Policy. This happened as far back as 2010.

I know that there are literally thousands of people who have fallen prey to this scam. The problem is: a lot of people seem to want to TALK about it; but nobody is interested in actually doing anything about it. I went as far as hiring a lawyer, who was based in London (UK). Mainly because that's where DeVere was when they stole my money!

My lawyer understood my situation, but he advised me that to let it go, because: the legal fees alone would exceed the money which Generali had stolen from me. His advice: find as many people as you can, who were also scammed, and organize ourselves into a group. Then, launch a legal battle. I have been searching for anyone who is interested in taking this matter further.

But, so far, have not found anyone with the balls to get up and fight these animals! As in: launching a legal attack on Generali and somehow getting back the money they stole from us.

!! If anyone is serious about getting together to hire a lawyer, here's my email: darwell.steve@***.com