Hear Roger’s story | The Universal Wealth scandal
Roger and Jackie Wade from Sheffield came close to losing everything they had worked 30 years for, at the hands of ceased company Universal Wealth. Have any of your client’s fallen victim to the Universal Wealth scandal? Hear Roger and Jackie’s story and how IDR Law resolved his issue at the Royal Court of Justice.
Roger Wade attended a Universal Wealth seminar in Sheffield and was persuaded to sign his property over into a trust to protect against care home fees and inheritance tax. He said:
“Because Jackie and I had signed this trust, the government were going to take a third of what we were going to leave to our lads.”
Universal Wealth operated by sending out literature to households advertising a “Keep it in the Family” seminar which they held in hotels nationwide. The company targeted people of retirement age, and proposed that they create wills, lasting powers of attorney and asset protection trusts.
Roger later realised the trust they had signed their property into would fail to carry out its primary purpose, which was to safeguard against inheritance tax and future care home fees, it had an adverse effect and would incur an enormous Capital Gains Tax bill for him and his family.
Former client of Universal Wealth Roger Wade commented on his experience:
“I heard about Universal Wealth and their services, through a flyer that came through my front door.
[At the seminar], there must have been about 200 people there, they were all over-60s. The people running the seminar said they were practising solicitors and they told us about the benefits of the trust, but they never said anything about having to pay Capital Gains Tax when you came to sell your house; they never mentioned that.
I thought, ‘yes, we need a will, and yes, we need power of attorney, and the trust option sounded so good we took that on as well.”
After signing up to the trust, Roger later received communication from another firm:
“I received a letter from another solicitor saying that Universal Wealth had stopped trading and had handed my trust to them to continue monitoring, and whether I’d like to sign a standing order for this. That’s when I smelt a rat.”
After speaking to his family Roger became concerned.
‘They said, ‘it’s a scam dad’. I said, ‘it can’t be, they were so professional’. And of course, it turned out to be a scam, so we thought we better get some advice.”
After seeking advice from his own solicitor, Roger was referred to Kate Saunders, Senior Associate at IDR Law, who said:
“Our success with the first reported Universal Wealth case where a charge prepared by Universal Wealth was set aside by the Royal Court of Justice has resulted in the firm representing a number of victims of the scandal.
For each client, the outcome of our work has been such that the legal charge registered against the client’s properties has been set aside on the basis that a mistake had been made.
The courts removed the charge, therefore negating the significant tax consequences that go hand-in-hand with these trusts.”
Watch Roger’s full story here: https://idrlaw.co.uk/universal-wealth/. Contact IDR Law: 0330 175 9912 / enquiries@idrlaw.co.uk
This article was submitted to be published by IDR Law. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.
