Review Time
a lukewarm pizza slice... thats what my life is now because of those absolute disgusting thieving rats at Abbey Wealth! i put everything in. every single penny for my kids and my house and now they just lock the door and laugh at me?? scam!! Abbey Wealth is a total fraud do not trust them they are villains in my story who ripped my heart out and stomped on it! i tried to withdraw and they said no more fees more taxes just lies lies lies!! i am shaking writing this i am so angry i could scream at the wall. (｀д´) they think they can just take from a person like me and get away with it but they are wrong. i was at the end of my rope crying every night thinking it was all over until i found a way out. they are the bad guys but Rosstex LP is the only reason i am not on the street right now. honestly if you are still stuck with those losers you probably didnt look hard enough for help but whatever. Rosstex LP actually got my money back when nobody else would even listen to me. Abbey Wealth can rot in hell for what they did to my family. do not let them win. go get your life back like i did.
Hi, I just hope someone finds this useful and does not need to go through the same experience as I did.In 2021 I transferred my UK pension in to the care of Abbey Wealth Management. Within a few months, my portfolio significantly lost value. My advisor showed little on no proactive management and then disappeared entirely, no word, no email, just gone. I was eventually informed my advisor had left Abbey and I was assigned a new one. I was never able to get in touch with the new advisor and after months of trying I eventually started the official complaints process at Abbey Wealth. As their final offer they proposed me a small rebate on part of the fees that they had collected. I refused.Looking through the TrustPilot reviews I saw than many people were experiencing the same lack of service. I became interested in the back story and it turned out to be, well, very interesting. After a bit of digging I found out that the CEO of AWM had founded PLU Financial (UK) in March 2023. At that same time three senior AWM employees/financial advisers left AWM to staff PLU Financial (UK). In Feb 2024, those same three advisors incorporated incorporated a separate entity, PLU Group Holdings (UK) but continued to do business under the trade name (PLU financial). i.e. the same trading name, web page, logo and employees but a different company number.Subsequently, I found that my advisor (Mark Smith) left AWM for PLU in March 2024. Whilst digging I counted that at least 10 AWM employees (senior managers, advisors and clerical) had moved to the new entity (four in 2023 and six in 2024). Mark Smith and others now claim 5-star performance on the Trust Pilot page at PLU with customers which clearly date from their employment at AWM.Meanwhile the customer service at AWM deteriorated to the point of non-existence, as witnessed by my own experience and witnessed through one-star Trust Pilot reviews of fellow customers. I draw attention to the 36 five-star reviews for AWM in December 2024. This is, well, how can we put it, statisically improbable given the history of reviews before and after.I invite you to reflect on the following:Have you ever wondered how financial advisors can consistently beat the market?Do you think the ex AWM employees would have left AWM for PLU if the company had not been set up by the senior management of AWM?Do you think customers at AWM would have received better service and advice if the employees had not left en-masse?Can reviews be accepted at face value? May I suggest verifying the profile of any reviewer, if it’s their only review...I don’t want to make any accusations but I encourage you to do some research.I took my complaint to the FSPO (financial ombudsman in Ireland) and went through the mediation process. It was a complete waste of time. I enquired about putting my case through the ‘formal’ FSPO process. I was informed this would take more than 4 years for a decision.In short, my attempt at getting the FSPO to do what I thought was their job came to nothing. I tried. To no avail.Thus, from bitter experience, I urge anyone considering using a financial services company, especially one not covered by your home country’s consumer protection laws, to reflect very carefully. PLU financial UK company number: 14757268PLU Group UK company number: 15489465All of my observations can be verified by cross-checking AWM and PLU trust Pilot pages with published Linkedin profiles. I hope you found this useful.
I have put one but a minus would have been more appropriate. Where do I start. 17 years ago I put my pension fund with Abbey. The service was good and my fund did reasonably well. Then buyout happened and Abbey has litteraly gone down the toilet. Advisors came and went so no chance to have any confidence in them. They have two advisors both work from home and the phone is never answered. Victor France the CEO obviously isn't interested. My fund is now too small to be of interest to them or anybody else for that matter. Vesper France my supposed advisor doesn't respond to emails. How rude is that? They had an office in Málaga which is now closed but is still on their web site. I think their Dublin office is closed as well. Do not give these people your business there are plenty of advisors around.
What a horrible experience I am having with Abbey Wealth. I was transferred to them after Pennick Blackwell (another bag of Worms) in Spain gave them their book of pension clients after Brexit. Since then my reliable AW advisor left the company, and I have not had a meeting in over two years. The advisor doesn't turn up for meetings and no apology or new appointment offered. I am becoming so frustrated. I have an email with a forecast of what my pension should be worth from Pennick Blackwell and unfortunately the profits have been eaten up by large fees, so I am nowhere near the forecast. I feel I have been totally misled. Since no-one contacts me and giving me no customers service, I will have to take advise from the FSCA or equivalent.
Since when is the Head of Marketing of Abbey Wealth (Phill Pennick) allowed to write reviews about the Abbey Wealth performance? (see bellow)Bonus question, is Phill Pennick the same Phill Pennick mentioned in the post from pension-life.com from 2019?:"Another prolific CWM scammer was Phill Pennick. He, like all his colleagues at the unregulated Continental Wealth Management firm on the Costa Blanca, conned hundreds of victims into having their pensions and life savings placed into illegally-sold insurance bonds by OMI, SEB and Generali, and then invested in toxic structured notes provided by Royal Bank of Canada, Commerzbank, Nomura and Leonteq. Victims lost up to 100% of their funds while Pennick and the rest of Kirby’s team of scammers earned fat, concealed commissions from the insurance bonds and structured notes.Pennick went on to set up his own “IFA” practice – Pennick Blackwell – at two office addresses on the Costa Blanca: Albir and La Nucia. Former mortgage broker Pennick – and his associate Kristoffer Taft (former barman with no qualifications) proceeded to scam more victims and openly commit criminal offences by selling insurance bonds illegally in contravention of the Spanish insurance regulations. In the past few days, the Albir Pennick Blackwell office has closed down and been emptied of all furniture and light bulbs. It is not known whether Pennick (who had also been running an estate agency and a mis-sold mortgage claims management company) is now on the run or whether he has simply done a “phoenix” somewhere else. Certainly, the public should be wary and report any sightings of this serial scammer."
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