Inheritance Planning Firm, Universal Wealth Management, have left its clients feeling extremely anxious, annoyed and heartbroken following the year long collapse of the firm.
Having entered into compulsory liquidation in May 2018, many clients have been concerned about the management of their trusts, with delays in estate administration and payments from the trusts being made, in addition to being unable to ascertain the whereabouts of their assets, or retrieve original wills and LPAs held in secure storage.
The company ran seminars on estate administration, advertising ways of mitigating property and cash losses when a person enters residential care. They also aimed to reduce inheritance tax costs.
In the latter stages of 2017, Universal Wealth Management was forced to lay off 20% of their workforce. Since then, the company have struggled; ignoring their clients’ legitimate concerns and communications in the process.
STEP have found that the company failed to: respond to communications from clients and STEP, release information pertaining to estate accounts, provide details of business continuity arrangements, withheld or failed to distribute funds and failed to advise on where monies had been invested.
Managing Director, Steven Peter Long was suspended from STEP in November 2017 and permanently excluded from STEP membership on October 5th of this year. Furthermore, two senior members of the firm were arrested for fraud in April this year.
A Suffolk police spokeswoman said: “Two people who were arrested on suspicion of fraud as part of a large-scale financial investigation have had their police bail cancelled.
“Both have now been released under investigation whilst inquiries are continuing.”
Following the firm’s closure, third party firms have started contacting victims of Universal Wealth Management with promises of rectifying the mistakes of the defunct firm. Although the properties may be safe, it is suspected that at least 140 clients have lost significant amounts of money that may not be recoverable.
STEP have advised any Universal Wealth Management client to: “We have become aware that various firms are appearing to try and exploit the situation by securing business from clients of Universal. Some of these firms appear to be run by former associates of the directors of Universal and offer to retrieve the client’s documents and the assets held by Universal trustees. There are also suggestions that in some cases these firms are putting undue pressure on clients to act quickly and this may breach trading standards.
“We are further aware of at least one firm that has received written instructions from Mr Long to take over the administration for a small number of clients.
“Universal clients should therefore be particularly cautious if contacted by any third party about their family trusts. While it is understandable that you will want to resolve the situation as quickly as possible, we would strongly suggest that you take independent legal advice before taking any action.”
The business, through unscrupulous or just poor judgements, has left devastating debris in the form of petrified clients and unemployed staff scattered along its metaphorical roadside and the Ipswich building that once had a workforce of over one hundred remains empty and deserted.
What is the next step for clients that have lost their cash assets? What does this mean for the families that had property in trust?
