IFA

1672 days ago

Tom Winnifrith Bearcast: Don't mention the football & trying to be a customer of St James Place

Okay I too mention how my beloved West Ham disgraced themselves last night. I was there. It was awful. A long drive home. This morning I tried doing business with St James Place (SJP). What a nightm are! is there an honest IFA who can help me with a simple problem? I then look at Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), Big Sofa (BST), Eve Group (EVE), Xaar (XAR)  and what the shock news from Shore Capital (SGR) says about the state of the AIM Casino.

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1835 days ago

Tom Winnifrith Bearcast: My fecking feet are killing me & will Neil Woodford's Waterloo be in Guernsey

I start with a discussion abiut a 19 mile rogue bloggers training walk today and about Woodlarks which I compare to the big name charities. I beg you to join the roll call of heros HERE. Then I look at Neil Woodford and events in Guernsey and explian in detail the role of the FCA and the ACD and why this could collapse very soon indeed. I discuss why no IFA worth his or her salt can risk not advising clients to redeem.

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2399 days ago

Bull Market Insanity: Auto IFA Nutmeg - surely this is going to end in tears

Nigel Wray and a raft of big name institutions have ploughed £59.4 million to date into Nutmeg, the online platform offering automated advice on fund allocation. Results out today beg the questions "why?" and "is this another sign of bull market insanity"

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2986 days ago

Lighthouse: good results, confident outlook, last chance to buy

IFA network, The Lighthouse Group (LGT) has announced results for 2015 and that it “is well positioned to deliver future growth”. We are ahead on this share tip but there is more to come.

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3562 days ago

Exclusive: Fund Manager arrested as the FCA fails AGAIN – 325 investors to lose everything

Fund Manager Robin Christie was arrested earlier this year and this week, I am led to believe, the Crown Prosecution Service will decide what charges to press against him. Meanwhile around £25 million invested in funds he created has disappeared. The cash was supplied by IFAs and it is not clear yet whether all ultimate investors know what has happened. The real red faces are round at the FCA which (under its previous guise as the FSA) visited Christie in 2009 and gave him a clean bill of health.

Christie’s funds at Propertybourse based in the Channel Islands invested in German and Tuscan real estate. He also established the Campbell Property Student Accommodation Investment Fund (Birmingham) LP. You would have thought that investing in Birmingham real estate over the past three years was a nil brainer but er…it was last month revealed to be worthless.

It

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4259 days ago

Lighthouse – Chairman goes. Hooray. More changes still needed

The summer campaign to stop the chairman of AIM listed IFA Group Lighthouse (LGT) from taking the company private and then to have him booted out and replaced by former CEO Allan Rosengren has almost been won. Rather than face a second humiliation in two months at a forthcoming EGM called to boot him out, Hickey has resigned. That is a start. But not enough.

There is a new chairman from the existing board. Rosengren has not been called back yet. The whole board signed up to the appalling de-listing proposal

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4273 days ago

Lighthouse Group – Almost There: chairman’s days numbered?

AIM Listed IFA group Lighthouse (LGT) is to be forced to hold a General Meeting to vote on proposals to boot out Chairman David Hickey and bring back ex CEO Allan Rosengren. This follows Hickey’s failed attempt to get Lighthouse delisted – a move I opposed bitterly.

Hickey has been a disaster for shareholders. With a small holding himself he is grossly overpaid and has allowed PLC costs to escalate badly rather than increasing the dividend as he should have done and could have done given that Lighthouse has stacks of cash and is profitable and cash generative. Rosengren will restore the balance.

At the GM for the delisting 46 million shares were cast Hickey’s way and 53 million against. 29 million shares did not vote. So do not assume that this is a shoe-in

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4289 days ago

Lighthouse – We Win. Time for Board to Walk – Bring back Rosengren

The prize shits who sit on the board of AIM listed IFA group Lighthouse (LGT) have been defeated. They wanted it to go private so they could stick their noses in the trough even more. Lighthouse needed 75% of the vote to get the de-listing approved. In fact the shareholders voted 54% to 46% against the delisting.

This site led the way in pointing out that the idea was a crap one and also that it was bound to be defeated. I spoke to Allan Rosengren the ex CEO who owned 14.6% of Lighthouse regularly and knew he was voting no. But the board ploughed on wasting more shareholders cash even though they were bound to lose and knew it. That alone should be a resignation matter for chairman David Hickey.

This whole affair is humiliating for the board which now has ZERO mandate to continue in office and which has done sod all to create shareholder value. In fact it has destroyed it.

I now publically call on chairman David Hickey to resign with immediate effect

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