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We used to have our money in an off-shore account, getting pretty much nothing. Switched it to another account offered by Friends Providence, but controlled by a whizz in Bangkok and, yes, it does cost you money, but when you get a return of 40% a year - I'm not complaining.
No, I don't work for them. And I'm not getting any commission to put this on the site - I'm just pleased as punch.
If you want to know the name of the company, just PM me.
V.S.
P.S. I hope I'm not breaking any rules here by promoting a company - just offering advice...
"Properly trained, man can be a dog's best friend"
I'm not a financial guru, which is why I leave it up to the professionals. You do have to commit yourself to five years, and, obviously, the markets could go up or down. This is not a short-term programme, I see it more as my retirement fund - and I have a few years to go before I get to the old codgers stage.
So far it's worked for us. But who knows what the markets will do in the future? The one thing I would say is that I haven't got the nonce or time to deal with it - and if someone else can make my money grow (better than an off-shore account) and it's relatively secure, then I'm willing to give it a go.
V.S.
"Properly trained, man can be a dog's best friend"
Sounds too good to be true. A wizz in BKK? Anyone who can achieve that result would not have to work.
My advice would be to take care.
I would have to agree with this comment VS. By your own admission you have no inclination to manage your funds by yourself and thats understandable. However a bit of homework has to be done before you hand over any money.
You say you are locked in for 5 years, that means you are not in an open ended fund and it seems to me that you are in some guaranteed bond/fund. Although 40% is achievable over one year as the markets are rising, if that figure was guaranteed to you as an annual return then I would be very wary, very wary indeed.
Did you hand over your money to a finacial advisor or directly to Friends Provident ?....We are all here to help one another whether it be money matters or whatever..
Did you mean Friends Provident Life Assurance? Some of their Associated funds have accieved 40% increases in the last year but they are young funds so the long term growth is not yet known. These are not guaranteed returns so can go up and down. Not same as offshore money accounts which are linked to interest rates and exchange rates. and normally accieve single figure growth. Anyway good luck with the investments.
Beware of the boiler boys. Check their registration etc. A fancy office in downtown Bangkok and impressive spotless paperwork is part of the scam. No judgment made in this particular case however, just a general thought. I have seen people losing huge amounts overnight because one day the fancy office was empty Do not let it happen to you.
We are all living in 'the good old days' of the future.
Hello, people – this is Vital Spark’s husband here, aka Parahandy, but haven’t posted for a long time.
You are all extremely interested in our financial investment situation, and that is totally understandable. V.S. pointed out that last year we were rewarded with something like a 40% return, and you all went ‘oh, yeah! If it’s true then you’re heading for a fall’. Again, understandable. Somehow, however, we don’t think so. Let me explain a little bit more and then try to handle your questions one by one. This is a system set up by a couple of very good friends of ours, who, and I hope that they will forgive me for saying this, aren’t spring chickens, but are hugely experienced in the financial business. (They come from Glasgow, which, to my mind, is a huge bonus. Look what they do to terrorists there…) The deal, as I understand it (and forgive me if I’m a bit wrong here) is that you send your money to Friends Provident to invest in their Zenith scheme, and you let our Glaswegian/Bangkokian friends control it for you. They study the various available markets and simply switch your money from one fund to another, as they deem necessary, in order to make you as much money as possible. If they see major thunder clouds on the horizon, then they simply take your money out of the thunder-threatened funds and put it on deposit, so you go up with the ups and stay up with the downs. Too simple? Yes, probably, but it seems to work. Now, to try to answer your questions…
Have we had an actual return yet? No – the money is sort of locked into the Zenith system at the moment. We can withdraw some or all of it at any time, but, during the first five years, you may have to pay certain surcharges to do so. We don’t intend to do so at the moment, so long as our university keeps paying us…
Ozuncle – a financial whiz in BKK – 40% – beware! Totally understand your feelings, and thank you for them. It seems unreal to us, but all we can say is that these people are friends of ours and they are coming up with the goods. The figure is obviously going to vary from year to year, and there is absolutely no guarantee that it will even stay positive - indeed they gave us absolutely no guarantees at all, but their history does tell a story. (Don’t know if V.S. mentioned this, but we gave them a smallish amount of money some years ago, which they put into their system roughly when it started – around about 2003 (may be wrong with dates here – forgive me) and that has very nearly doubled since then.) Re the ‘don’t have to work’ bit, maybe not, but they are using your money to make money for you. They do, however charge you 1.6% per annum for the privilege, which I think is worth it, and so do lots of other people. That is where their income is, and their life, and they don’t want to throw it all away!
Big Jimmy – thanks again for your concern, but I think that most of your points have been answered already. No guarantees of any success at all, just a thing called trust. No, we don’t expect 40% every year for one moment. If my memory serves me correctly (doubtful) then we sent a cheque to Friends Prov direct, and we get details (lots of them) sent to us from FP in Hong Kong every time a ‘switch is made’ by our friends. This may even annoy FP a bit, but it works!
PJG – not being a financial whiz myself, I get easily confused by the different parts of FP. There is no Life Insurance element involved in this – we seem to deal with FP International. Hope that helps.
Roel – thanks for the warning, and I do remember the boiler house boys going back a few years. These people really are kosher, as I said above.
O.K. What’s next? I fully understand that advertising is not permitted on forums like this, (I’m a moderator on two other forums myself, as is V.S.), so I’m not going to give any contact details on this post. What I will do, however, is to post another quick message after this one with the website of the company in question. The two people who run it are called Kinny (yes – Kinny, short for ‘Kinloch’ – not Kenny) and Sheena. They are both lovely people, who also happen to love Hua Hin, so if you would like to talk to them, I’m sure that you would be giving them a very good excuse for a company paid trip down here to do the necessary.
If, however, the eagle-eyed mods on this forum ditch the next post, then do please PM me or VS and I/we will send you whatever details you need to get you on your way.
I wish you all well, and don’t be frightened – it might, just might, be possible!
Have fun –
P + VS
Apart from that Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play? - Tom Lehrer
Parahandy wrote:The company mentioned above is called KFMS (Thailand) and this is their website address: http://www.kfmsthailand.com/.
Good luck, and let us know how you get on. Any probs - let us know!
P + VS
Clicked onto the site..tried to find out who these people are who run this..but there is no info whatsoever....seems they are financial advisors..no history on their background...nothing...I am from Glasgow myself and thats no reason to trust anyone just cause cause they speak our lingo....
Big Jimmy: Absolutely right. Of course you shouldn't trust them just because they're from Glasgow - just like I shouldn't trust someone if they were from Suffolk. I'm not really sure how much information you wanted about Kinny & Sheena - they're not going to put their life history on their website - but if you really want to know more you can contact them.
Up to you...
V.S.
"Properly trained, man can be a dog's best friend"
Vital Spark wrote:Big Jimmy: Absolutely right. Of course you shouldn't trust them just because they're from Glasgow - just like I shouldn't trust someone if they were from Suffolk. I'm not really sure how much information you wanted about Kinny & Sheena - they're not going to put their life history on their website - but if you really want to know more you can contact them.
Up to you...
V.S.
They have a website..no info about their finacial background..nothing to check..they can say anything they like on e-mail..why are there no facts to check ?.did they work for Goldman Sachs..or Braclays Bank ?.. can we check their history ?...looks like they are a couple who just set up as finacial advisors.....
