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Today we\u2019re bringing you a real-life case that has recently come to our attention, and which we wish to publicly denounce here. It is an example of the pressure that bank staff in general \u2013 and this branch manager at La Caixa in particular \u2013 exert on their customers in order to keep them with the bank\u00a0at all costs<\/strong>. As you will see in this email sent by the director to her client, she uses scare tactics and manipulation to convince the investor that they are doing something completely mad, and in the process discredit none other than Bestinver\u2019s pension schemes\u2026 Her email is probably the best example of the bank\u2019s aggressive and unethical sales tactics. And this manager\u2019s superiors would surely have no hesitation in congratulating her on her (dubious) sales tactics, designed to bolster the bank\u2019s ailing balance sheets. This is no exception; unfortunately, this is how our banks operate, prioritising their commercial interests over the most basic ethical behaviour towards their customers, to whom \u2013 let us not forget \u2013 they are presumably accountable and to whom they are supposed to provide advice.<\/p>\n To give you some context, this is the email received by a LaCaixa customer shortly after he had formally notified the manager of his branch of his instruction to transfer his two pension schemes to the Bestinver Global Pension Scheme. It goes without saying that this Bestinver scheme is perfectly suited to the client\u2019s age and personal and financial circumstances. And for those of you who are not familiar with Bestinver\u2019s track record in general, and with this Global scheme in particular,\u00a0Here\u2019s his profile<\/a>\u00a0and also a\u00a0FundsPeople article<\/a>\u00a0in which Beltr\u00e1n Parages is interviewed, discussing precisely the pension and employment schemes offered by that management company. Please read the email from this branch manager \u2013 we have corrected a few punctuation and spelling errors to make it easier to understand \u2013 and we will then offer some comments on it:<\/p>\n Hello XXXXX,<\/em><\/p>\n We were surprised to receive your request to transfer your pension plans, and even more so when we see that you are radically changing your investment policies. Your choices, up to now, have been entirely conservative, with a guaranteed scheme such as PlancaixaXX. As you can see from the attached statement, it has made very sound investments with good returns. The other scheme, for regular contributions, was also a fixed-income scheme designed to ensure stability and limit risk. It has also achieved a very good return.<\/em><\/p>\n Clearly, you have many years ahead of you with these investments, which is why equities are a good option for you \u2013 as I imagine we must have mentioned at some point \u2013 but up to now it has been prudent to opt for fixed-income investments, as has been the case. You have opted for a scheme run by a private company, which is not subject to financial sector regulations or supervision, and which manages a global equity scheme where anything goes: markets, types of companies (large, small, etc.). It\u2019s the 100% risk profile, which can yield very good returns, as has been the case this year, but I assume you\u2019re aware that it can also lead to sharp falls, such as in 2008, as you\u2019ll have seen in the scheme\u2019s information sheet (you can check different pension providers on the INVERCO website; they\u2019re all listed there).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Vidacaixa is a very good pension fund manager. If there\u2019s one thing that sets La Caixa apart, it\u2019s our consistent approach to prudence, as the money we manage isn\u2019t ours; nevertheless, we offer a wide range of equity-based pension plans, which you can view on our website, such as the Selecci\u00f3n, the Bolsa III and others that can meet your needs, whilst minimising risks!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I would very much like you to reconsider your decision by signing the Letters of Revocation that I have attached and sending them to me, along with a copy of your ID card, by Thursday. We can then assess the best option for transferring your plan \u2013 and also for making new contributions \u2013 and you will be able to benefit from a bonus of 2\u20133% of the transferred value, depending on the plan, which will be credited to your current account.<\/em><\/p>\n I look forward to hearing from you.\u00a0<\/em>See you very soon. Best regards.<\/em><\/p>\n Signed: XXXXXXXX<\/em><\/p>\n Office Manager<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n What do you think? First, he tells him he\u2019s mad to entrust his money to the Bestinver scheme, listing all sorts of disasters that could befall him and implying \u2013 more or less subtly \u2013 that the Bestinver scheme is nothing short of illegal and completely unregulated. Then he extols the virtues of Vidacaixa as the epitome of prudence, and immediately afterwards tries to sell him his own investment funds. Mind you, it seems that his investment funds, unlike Bestinver\u2019s, which \u00abis risk 100%<\/em>\u00ab, this time \u00ab\u00bbcan meet your needs, whilst minimising risks!'<\/em>. So, what\u2019s the deal? And not only that, but\u00a0As you\u2019re such a great lad, I\u2019m going to give you a little 2-3% sweet on account, so you\u2019ll stop doing silly things like taking your money out of the bank<\/em>. Obviously, he can offer this sweetener because they\u2019re going to make a lot more money later on from that pension scheme, with all sorts of traps hidden in the small print and whispered lies. And to top it all off, she\u2019s already attached the revocation form and is asking him to send it back signed by that very Thursday, in the hope of catching him off guard and getting that document signed on the spot before the pressure she\u2019s exerted wears off. And bear in mind that this isn\u2019t drafted by some novice who\u2019ll get told off for going a bit overboard on the keyboard, but by a full-fledged branch manager who knows exactly what she\u2019s doing and to whom she\u2019s doing it.\u00a0Her boss must be very proud of her \u2013 and of himself\u2026 How clever they must think they are, deceiving and abusing the trust of their poor customers.<\/p>\n When I first read this email from the manager, I was once again overcome by that familiar feeling of helplessness and anger at the same time \u2013 a feeling all too familiar to those of us who have been dealing with banks and bankers for many years now. But just because it\u2019s part of our daily routine doesn\u2019t make it any more fair or ethical for a branch manager to abuse the trust his clients place in him, because he doesn\u2019t present himself to them as a salesperson working for his bosses, but as an \u00abadviser\u00bb working for his clients\u2026 Machiavellian. Not to mention the collateral damage inflicted on third parties who have had nothing to do with it, because it is neither fair nor ethical to cast doubt on the rigour of regulatory compliance regarding the pension schemes of a management firm of which all Spaniards should be proud \u2013 such as Bestinver, a global benchmark in the world of asset management. Slander is the only argument of those who cannot compete on results or quality of service.<\/p>\n We must not take it for granted that the banking sector \u2013 our Spanish banking sector \u2013 engages in malpractice, to put it mildly. These commercial ploys, which ultimately ruin or undermine the financial security of their customers, should be severely punished. Let us not forget that what this manager \u2013 and many other bank employees and executives \u2013 are playing with is something as sacred as families\u2019 savings. In other words, they are jeopardising the future, security and well-being of entire households, without a second thought, simply to ensure that the bank they work for makes more profit.<\/p>\n The thing is, we\u2019re not talking about going to the supermarket to buy washing powder or breakfast cereals \u2013 no. Here we\u2019re dealing with investments that are almost always more complex than the client needs or is able to understand. It\u2019s not their fault, nor are they obliged to possess such complex knowledge \u2013 just as most of us aren\u2019t obliged to understand the fundamentals of medicine or surgical techniques when we need healthcare. Just as those of us who aren\u2019t doctors need honest and competent professionals when we fall ill, investors need someone to\u00a0adviser<\/em>, and he didn\u2019t\u00a0bandage<\/em>, investment proposals. Otherwise, it would be as if, when faced with a serious illness where so much is at stake, we were to entrust our health to a medicine salesman (not even a pharmacist) as though he were a specialist doctor. A medicine salesman, incidentally, whose job is at risk if he does not sell his entire briefcase\u2019s worth every day and meet the ferocious sales targets set by his voracious bosses. Then, when mediocrity (at best) takes hold of the investment returns of the long-suffering clients, the bankers have the audacity to blame them for their\u00a0\u00abbad influence\u00bb on the \u00abadvice\u00bb process\u00bb<\/a>. Surreal, to be sure.<\/p>\n Some might say that the banks\u2019 excessive commercial ambition is due to their status as\u00a0despair and insolvency<\/a>, who no longer know how to hide it. But most of them were already like this when they were apparently swimming in the abundance of mortgages set at 120% of the property\u2019s value and default rates were at rock bottom. It is not a lack of profits that is dragging them into the mire of \u00abanything goes\u00bb, but the absolute absence of ethics in their day-to-day work. It is the perversion of financial advice in its purest form, as we have already stated in\u00a0on previous occasions<\/a>. We would find countless\u00a0similar cases<\/a>. And this email, written by that office manager, is nothing more than the tip of a macabre and outrageous iceberg. Shall we have a word?<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hoy os traemos un caso real que ha llegado a nuestras manos recientemente, y que desde aqu\u00ed queremos denunciar p\u00fablicamente. Es una muestra de la presi\u00f3n que ejercen en general los empleados de banca, y en particular esta directora de oficina de La Caixa, hacia sus Clientes, para retenerlos en la entidad\u00a0a toda costa. Como […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,40,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banca","category-gestion-financiera","category-reflexion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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Some of you might say that it is only natural for any employee to prioritise the interests of the person who pays their wages, and that it would be absurd to bite the hand that feeds them and keeps them in their job. But bear in mind that when the interests of customers clash with those of the bank (the more fees one pays, the more money the other makes, and vice versa), the relationship can no longer be described as \u00abadvice\u00bb at all, but rather as a mere sale, and this must be made clear. And what they are actually doing is a sale, moreover, in the purest style of Moorish souk<\/strong>, where you have to haggle, argue and complain about breaches of the agreement, and other \u00abmistakes\u00bb \u2013 which, curiously, always seem to work in the bank\u2019s favour. In other words, this is a far cry from proper advice, where the criteria\u00a0unique<\/strong>\u00a0it must be to recommend\u00a0always<\/strong>\u00a0what is best for the investor and their family.<\/p>\n