Spanish Equity Release Fiasco

The promotional literature by Swiss Choices Equity Release leaves no room for doubt when signing up the Equity Release obnoxious scheme. As they indicate, “do not make the mistake of leaving any action until the last minute…because you don’t know when this will be.”

Developed by Graydon & Associates Costa Blanca S.L. in connection with Swiss Life (Liechtenstein) AG and BFI Consulting AG (whatever those initials stand for), according to the duo, “it was fine-tuned to provide current and future liquidity whilst ensuring the highest possible level of safety, privacy and asset protection.” . 

To cap it all, they declared that “this kind of long-term planning requires utmost solidity – the kind that only the time-tested and stringent insurance and banking regulations of Switzerland can offer”

This financial flyer needs to be read in depth because of the extraordinary record it holds: that of being able to insert one lie within every three words!

Documents

• Swiss-Choices-Equity-Release-Brochure (PDF ~500 kb)

admin Uncategorized Graydon & Associates, Swiss Choices, Swiss Life

While the title of the letter is insulting beyond belief, it is the content of it which encompasses the various degrees of deceit the duo descended to.

Were these the declining standards of living Henry Woods was referring to, which have in fact been inflicted on their clients as a result of the ER contract?

• Anguish
• Stress
• Fear
• Depression
• Heart Palpitations
• Increased risk of heart disease
• One amputee due to alleged vascular crisis caused by stress
• One recorded death due to alcoholism following depression

Antonio Flores Uncategorized Henry Woods, Rothschild

For Nordea, equity release risk was to be assesed by reference to the state of the waters you were going to swim in. If you preferred rough waters, you were in for a bumpy ride but if you were rather more cautious with your life-time savings, then your preference naturally would be calm waters, as in the blurred photo.

Well, no sooner than the product was signed up, the calm waters soon turned into a shockingly brutal storm where losses have reportedly reached 50% of the sums invested.

Excellent quantification of risk!

Documents

• Nordea-Risk-Quantification (PDF)

Antonio Flores Uncategorized Equity Release, Nordea Bank

Page 27 of the brochure Guide to Wealth and Tax Planning in Spain gives us some clues of extreme deceit. Not only it openly vindicates the evasion of Spanish taxes by elaborating on specific tax concepts, but this essay also contains suspicious omissions that, if known, would have made a potential subscriber of the product pull out.  The most crucial omission is contained a Spanish tax provision quoted on page 27, top right, which reads: 

“ non-residents tax payers are only liable on the basis of assets located in Spain (or rights acquired by virtue of inheritance or donation), or where the life insurance policy has been established through a Spanish insurance company.”

This quote is inspired on article 7 of the Spanish Inheritance and Gift Tax Act, which says the above but also, the following: “or where the life insurance has been established by foreign insurance entities operating in Spain”.

Which clearly leads us to conclude that Nordea consciously omitted a crucial bit of information that, if inserted, would have made the whole proposal of Equity Release fall by the wayside and thus, the brochure would have not existed. If all of those who signed with Nordea had been given the benefit of objective and transparent tax information, rather than deliberately manipulated, they would have not been saddled with these obnoxious products. Unfortunately, they were lied to.

Article 282 of the Spanish Penal Code stipulates: “manufacturers or traders that, when advertising products and services, make false or untrue statements about the same, capable of causing serious damage to customers, will serve a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 12 months imprisonment.”

 Documents

• Nordea-Brochure (PDF ~800 kb)

Antonio Flores Uncategorized Equity Release, Equity Release Victims Association, Inheritance tax Spain, Nordea, Nordea Bank

At last, some informant has leaked information proving the involvement of Barclays Bank in the Equity Release fiasco. The information we had received so far from them stressed the facts that they had never used seudo-IFAs, nor had they sold the product based on an alleged IHT-mitigation effect. The attached seems to indicate something different though…

Documents

• Henry_Woods_-_Summer_2005-Brochure (PDF 2.5 Mb)

Antonio Flores Uncategorized Barclays Bank, Barclays Equity Release, Henry Woods

When the Equity Release providers chose to roam the Spanish Costas and hired imposter IFAs, they seriously hampered their ability to lend in a massive scale for their scope was, from the outset, limited to the tourist areas. Because having hundreds of millions to lend, perhaps billions, to unsuspecting pensioners who were looking at maitaining their wealth, I would have thought that a full on marketing campaign was de rigeur, via Spanish national television, media outlets etc.

Surely, the following pitch would have made tens of thousands of pensioners to latch on to the Tax-Evading-Equity-Release-Programme:

Advertiser:

Dear Spanish Pensioner, this message is for you and if you don’t listen carefully, you may be in trouble: Do you own a property?…Do you not have a mortgage on it?…Do you not realize that your property and family wealth is in danger if you don’t to something?…Because the Spanish Inland Revenue is here to rob you…Take out a mortgage loan on your property, no matter your age or size of your pension, have a guaranteed income AND dodge the Inland Revenue…Or do nothing in terms of IHT planning and make the tax man’s life easier, make them a member of family and allow them to run away with your hard-earned income.” (non-bold text extracted from publicity used by agents employed by Rothschild and Nordea Bank).

One can only imagine the hundreds of millions of Euros these banks, imposter IFAs, Lawyers, Notary Publics and incompetent tax-haven-fund-managers, could have reaped if this ad would have on say, Antena 3, Telecinco, Canal Sur, or perhaps the BBC…and it will stay in our imagination because had this scaremongering message been divulged on Spanish media outlets, live-broadcasted breaking-news showing scores of pinstriped-suited individuals being thrown into police vans would had been almost guaranteed.

Yet still they managed to run off to Luxembourg with a few good number of millions of expat money.

Downloads

• Lawbird-Rothschild-Marketing-Literature-Court-Evidence (PDF)

Antonio Flores Uncategorized Danske Bank, Equity Release, Hamiltons Financial Services, Henry Woods, Luxembourg, Nordea Bank, Rothschild

Unfortunately for Rothschild, the repressive laws that curtail freedom of speech do not reach Spain and so, we are comfortably allowed to produce staggering evidence or wrongdoing, even if it means that a bank is exposed. But just how Rothschild managed to give a mortgage to several 90-year old is beyond the comprehension of most mortals, it is a mystery that belongs to the realm of the extraordinary, almost paranormal.

And yet, they achieved it: Peter Rose, professional scaremonger, compulsive liar and also Managing Director of Rothschild, was able to put together an article that, by inviting people to openly defraud the Spanish Tax Office, was convincing enough to get people to sign up to a product that would see them, ultimately, homeless.

Downloads

• Rothschild Equity Release Article

Antonio Flores Uncategorized Peter Rose, Rothschild