Someone of the same name also used to direct a UK company, now dissolved, called Sovereign International Group Ltd .
According to the WWB site , the manager of the Swiss operation is this person . His LinkedIn profile does not name his employer. According to Moneyhouse , a person of that name used to work for an insurance broker called SovIntl Sàrl, now in liquidation ( business registry entry ) and now manages a financial planning company called Manentia GmbH .
And I bet they supply "beef" to various food companies, too.
& to complete the circle if you look at this site
It says "WorldWideBroker is the trading name of Manentia GmbH registration number, ch-170.4.010.039-7".
Interesting. Rob didn't mention that in his earlier reply.
The guy who used to manage branches of Devere in Switzerland and Portugal is now managing Blacktower in Portugal.
Blacktower Financial Management expands in Portugal
Someone who share's Rob's name recently established a company in Spain , whose business purpose is (Google translate):
" The development, construction, sale and rental of housing, even officially protected, in all forms, industrial and commercial buildings and any other buildings. lease, assignment, or hotel tourist exploitation of movable and buildings ."
WWB just called me.
On my desk phone.
The guy used the usual 'referral' story, and I greatly enjoyed telling him that I am here on my lonesome and NOBODY uses my desk phone, and that he'd better have a little chat with his acquisitions person about illicitly harvested contacts.
Then I told him to put me on the DNC and hung up.
If I find out which bastard shopped out my number...
Hello again,
Reading the recent threads there seems to have been some interesting investigative journalism conducted leading to all sorts of imaginative conclusions.
Firstly, and most recent Reb77Br has discovered a company that I own in Spain. I can state that there has been no coincidence; this is in fact my company. It was simply established to enable my wife & I to purchase a modest investment property in Spain. We took advice from a local accountant who advised us to buy the property via a company as the property is distressed on the local caja's balance sheet and is part of the La Manga resort tied into a long-term contract with the management company. This has no connection with my career or WWB - this is purely personal.
Secondly, let me clear up our local corporate structure and my employment history.
From 2007-2009 I worked for a small brokerage trading as Sovereign International with offices in London & Geneva. As part of my package I owned 5% in shares, which is why my name is on the company register. The name Sovereign International was already taken therefore the company was registered in Switzerland as 'SovIntl Sàrl' which was the closest name to the trading name. My role included some management duties therefore the majority shareholder made me a director. This is entirely normal and many companies are set up this way.
From 2009 I decided to join WorldWideBroker. The arrangement we agreed with the owner was a franchise structure whereby a colleague would run the Geneva office & I would run the Zurich office. My colleagues franchise was named WorldWideBroker sàrl and as I couldn't call my franchise the same name I opted for Manentia GmbH but trading as WorldWideBroker. This type of structure is quite normal and was advised by a well-known accounting firm.
Subsequently, my colleague decided to breakaway as stated on the Liberty Wealth website. As he owned the Geneva based company he simply conducted a name change rather than setting up a new company. This was done amicably and his client base has not been affected by this change.
Manentia GmbH continues under my ownership and is wholly owned by me with a team of 10 people who are dedicated, hard working and committed to providing our clients with a high level of personalised service. Manentia GmbH has a franchaise and name sharing agreement with WWB, The Netherlands which allows us to trade as WorldWideBroker in Switzerland. This is a regulated entity and we abide by all local laws.
What we do
As there has been so much negativity by a small group of forum regulars I feel I need to rebalance this by explaining what we do and why I believe we provide real value.
Over the years I have found that there are many financial challenges individuals face in the international community in Switzerland. In general the high earning internationally mobile community due to lack of time, multi-residencies, financial & tax complexities require the assistance of competent financial advisers who have access to specialist professionals & products.
Over the years I have met a people that have significant inefficiencies within their planning that will result in substantial shortfalls due to:
• Tax
Tax rates are rising all over the world and the middle classes will shoulder this burden. Many people used to earning high salaries will fall into the highest rate of tax in most countries when they come to retire which are already between 30 – 60%. These rates will have to rise further to appease an austerity-wearied electorate.
Inheritance tax also known as transfer tax, gift tax & wealth tax are applied in many countries with many more countries around the world considering adopting or increasing this tax. High net worth & high earners can do a lot of smart planning in this area to mitigate & reduce substantially this burden. Surprisingly, although supported by centre right governments around the world many people don’t understand their options in this area or simply don’t have time. e.g. Americans living in Switzerland can defer their tax liabilities over long periods using legitimate structures that even Ben Bernanke utilizes (he has 2) Unfortunately for American passport holders, earning average salaries in Switzerland, they are classed as high net worth when reporting to Uncle Sam back home and get hit hard with no account taken for the extra cost of living in Switzerland. There are many other examples for other nationalities depending on future residency, domicile & net worth.
• Real Return losses over time
Banks are paying record low rates with higher inflation expected over the coming years - people with high levels of low yielding assets such as cash will slowly see their wealth eroded.
• Insufficient life cover
Incredibly many people have little or no life cover, in the case of young children this is one of the most concerning areas of financial planning as it’s such a cheap form of insurance. Normally, for less than a meal a month in a local Swiss restaurant adequate life cover is available & tax deductible.
• Overpaying on mortgage interest
Banks are re-capitalising after the economic crisis, with the exception of Switzerland bank spreads in many countries are at an all time high, - re-financing or restructuring can mean significant efficiency savings. These savings can then be re-deployed in more useful ways.
• Risk
Many individuals are over concentrated as exemplified at UBS in the GFC. Many UBS employees had most of their income/assets tied into their employer through share plans, retirement plans, bonuses, salary & ultimately their jobs. It’s very common for senior corporate employees to have almost all of their finances tied to their company. Other examples include currency (e.g some believed the Euro was at risk of implosion last year)
• Retirement
As a rule of thumb you will require CHF 1,000,000 in assets for every CHF 50,000 of income in retirement. If inflation averages 3% p.a - in 24 yrs CHF 50,000 in real terms is halved. That is a sobering thought for many people who do not want to rely on the state for their retirement.
When you consider that many international people have frozen pensions in several countries, poorly managed in opaque structures - large amounts of cash on current accounts earning little to no interest - under diversification of their assets which results in needless risk taking.
Consider that CHF 5000 p/m over 20yrs invested in a bank versus other assets over the long term.
Swiss current account @ 0.3% = CHF 1,236,829.19
@ 2% CHF 1,473,587.70
@ 5% CHF 2,037,288.92
@ 9% CHF 3,217,280.56
Admittedly, the above is without fees applied, but even after fees investing over the long term in real or growth assets, managed & in a risk adjusted fashion makes more sense than simply leaving on a bank account. The ironic fact is, money on current accounts are invested in these assets anyway, it’s just we don’t know where, we don’t receive any benefit from the growth of these assets & we have risk if there are bank fails or the system fails.
Many experts believe that in the next 10 years we are going to experience high rates of inflation in many major economies from Central banks that are creating large amounts of new money through quantitative easing.
Although, Bernanke and many of his counterparts who advocate quantitative easing methods state, this can be reversed, my fear is when the time comes for a reversal in policy, political pressure for growth & job creation will impede central bank independence and influence a sluggish reversal of policy.
In my experience far too many high earning people in Switzerland have far too little in growth & real assets & are heavily overweight in cash; either through their pensions, bank accounts or life insurance policies.
...and finally
There has been much criticism on this forum; some clown even insinuated that we have something to do with doggy beef!
We are extremely proud of what we do for our clients & our clients tell us they appreciate the assistance & personal service we provide them. As I’ve said before anybody that wants further detailed information about me, or any of our employees you can visit us or call us. We are happy to be fully transparent.
If anybody is considering working with us I would be happy to refer them to a respectable individual in Switzerland they can speak with who’s had personal experience working with us. We have clients at many of the major corporations in Switzerland of most major nationalities. I’m sure if I asked they would be happy to oblige.
One last point - I'm am happy to answer genuine questions, but I do not understand why a small group of people on this forum who have no identity, no hard facts are trying to destroy a small business trying to make it's way in the world. We create employment, we pay our taxes + spending into the local economy, we work damn hard, we serve our clients & we source business for large corporations who also btw employ people pay taxes etc. Isn't this what Europe needs more of??? America pulling itself out of the mire, Asia & LatAm are growing (even Japan's looking better) In my view, it's this sad negativity that this thread demonstrates that is holding Europe back - it's a shame...
Rob
Gotta give the guy credit for coming on here and explaining what they do and how they're set up.
If you want financial advice you have to pay for it. If you then after doing due deligence don't think it adds any value then don't take it. If you do take something and then realise that you could have cut the broker out and gone directly to the bank / insurance company for the same product then tough shit! If the product you buy goes tits up then tough shit! If you do nothing and your money gets eroded by inflation then tough shit! At the end of the day it's up to individuals to decide what risks they want to take.
Unfortunately for "Financial Advisors" the term has become synonymous with "Con Artist"
I completely agree.
The guy said "This is a regulated entity and we abide by all local laws"
According to their web site they belong to Polyreg which is a self regulated organisation controlling money laundering & registered with Finma.
Oddly if I look at the Finma web site for Financial Intermediaries belonging to SROs (Polyreg) I do not find Manentia or Worldwidebroker, see screenshots.
You can see another firm with a similar name shows up under Polyreg so I am doing the search OK. Mysterious isn't it
Hmm Manentia GmbH is registered in Zug! And Midg seems to be a reference to Alan Robert Midgley...
http://www.hrazg.ch/webservices/inet...&lang=1&sort=0
This is the full list of intermediaries belonging to PolyReg which is published on their website:
I also don't find any reference to Manentia or WorldwideBroker, but maybe I have the wrong list.
Here is the list: http://www.finma.ch/institute/pdf_e/edufi.pdf
Yes that was in 2004.
The reason was " This will apply as long as the FINMA (Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) has not yet published its publication of all regulated financial intermediaries in Switzerland "
Now FINMA has now published its lists of all regulated financial intermediaries in Switzerland so I assume this reason does not apply anymore.
Certainly you can now go to the FINMa web site here & search for FI members of Polyreg - this search does work for other FIs but not for the two mentioned. It is true that Polyreg does not publish its list of members - this list is kept by FINMa & is searchable.
I did use the membership confirmation function on the Polyreg web site & this did confirm Manentia GMBH is a member since circa 2 months. I guess the FINMA site is out of date.
So as a client of this FIs you are protected by Polyreg against the FI performing money laundering; I do not know what other protection you have due to this Polyreg registration
For what it is worth, WorldWideBroker has been exhibiting with us at Expat-Expo for many years now and I can promise you that have never had a single complaint about them. Another firm (mentioned earlier in this thread) exhibited with us a few times and I was overwhelmed by complaints from visitors and exhibitors, so I have banned that company from exhibiting with us in the future.
As in all professions, there are good and bad.
Ed McGaugh
Expat-Expo GmbH
Hi all
I was asked if I could be used as a referal by a office colleague of mine. This for a company called MWC Group (financial consulting). Since I don't just give out my personal details for a company whom I don't know anything about, I started to google a bit and found out that this company is registered under Manentia GmbH in Dietikon. Googling Manentia GmbH brought me directly to this thread on English Forum. Can it be that World Wide Broker changed its name to MWC Group?
Regards
Maison
Thanks for sharing. After reading this thread I will definately stay away. As already mentioned, I don't just give away my personal details if a co-worker asks me because some financial advisor wants more contacts. Was interesting to find out this company simply just changed its name from World Wide Broker to MWC Group. After reading many different comments on this thread, I don't wonder why anymore! Will definately not waste my time!
As a General advice... be mindful of the law relevant to the contract ie Switzerland and no some UK Offshore juridiction which might not have an Ombusman offering.
And how does the fee structure work? fully transparent? no soft commission or quick back? sometimes, it is hard not to get lose in the small print.
please read every page.
good luck