Bit Brain image.png

I have now finished describing the background and anatomy of the Retirement Fund Scam to you. Should you wish to read any of the previous episodes in this series, you may find them here:

In today's post, we'll look at what has happened since then, and then I will conclude.

Additional Developments

Since identifying the chronic level of rot behind this plan a few weeks ago, I’ve tried to cancel it. That has not gone well.

I got a phone-call almost IMMEDIATELY after emailing them (it’s amazing how they panic when you want to cut off their money supply!), but that call was less than useless to me. All I was told is that government regulations prevent me from withdrawing my money - AT ALL - because it is governed by pension fund law.

I knew for a fact that there are ways around that, since I’ve already drawn money from another pension fund, but the caller could not help me because he “is not an advisor”. Great - so why did HE call me then, and not the advisor whom I emailed?

A promise for a call-back by an advisor before the end of the day never happened, but an email sent the following day informed me that my case had been referred to an advisor (note that my policies ARE ALREADY ALLOCATED to an advisor - at least on paper), and that I would be contacted shortly.

That was two weeks ago. Unfortunately “life” happened in the interim - I had to have my dog’s eyes removed and that’s been a major full-time challenge for the past couple of weeks, add endless car trouble and some severe government service delivery issues into the mix and following up on this policy has not been a priority. Now that normality (or whatever passes for normality these days) is finally once again semi-restored, I have sent them a far more detailed email of requests - highlighting their failure to contact me so far. We’ll see what happens next...

Even in the hypothetical situation that I can get all my money out tomorrow (which is NOT going to happen), I would be taxed so heavily on it that it might not even be worth doing so. My own calculations - based on existing company penalties and government tax laws, show that I would lose about 40% of my policy value in such a scenario. This again shows how keen government is to force people into using these scam retirement funds in order to help fulfil its socialist election promises.

The fact that I am willing to take that 40% loss to my retirement savings shows just how bad things are. I believe I can still gain by doing so, by reinvesting the remaining money MYSELF. My own investments have FAR outperformed my retirement investments, measured over a period of many years. Even my stock market investments have run rings around my retirement fund, to say nothing of my investments in cryptocurrencies and precious metals! By getting my money out, I could reinvest, stop paying monthly contributions to scammers, and would be enriching myself instead of my government and the financial industry vultures.

Oh yeah, remember at this start of this post series when I said I had more than one policy with these guys? Well, it turns out that my savings policy with them is ALSO similarly affected. While I don’t pay monthly contributions towards it, they STILL deduct from it monthly, based on the total policy value. The rates of return are so poor that investing that money with my bank would have been a better option - I’m dead serious. I could probably have obtained about a 50% higher ROI had I put that money into a high interest long-term bank account.

UPDATE: Subsequent to writing the above information, I have been contacted by an advisor - who has been no help at all. He didn’t even understand how the effective cost system of his own policies (which he sells daily!) works, I had to explain it to him.

In speaking to him, I did manage to sneak a few confession out of him. For instance, he readily admits that the plans are designed to trick people into buying them, in no way does he try to deny that. Also, he stated - and I have a recording of this - that he can’t believe how much I’m paying in admin costs, and if it were his policy, then he would also cancel it!

Again, he sells these policies to people every day! As I have said before, the sheer amount of paperwork is so vast, that he - who works for the company which runs my policy, and having direct access to all of my information - asked ME to email HIM the relevant documents! He’s been “analysing” them for a week now, with no reply. I emailed him yesterday to prompt him to hasten the cancellation of my monthly policy contributions - and still I wait. I’m beginning to hope that he DOESN’T call me, I’m ready to get nasty!

FINAL UPDATE: it’s several days later and I have at last managed to get the termination document out of my broker. He tried ignoring me, distracting me, ignoring me some more, lying to be about the “bonus”, convincing me that the plan was actually a good one, and finally - when he could clearly see that I was having none of it - he tried to sell me a replacement policy! At this stage, one can only laugh!

I am DELIGHTED to announce that I signed my policy cancellation document about an hour ago. I won’t get my money back, but at least I’ll stop the monthly payments, and that will somewhat limit their continued rape of my retirement money. It will be interesting to see how that “growth” performs now - without my monthly contributions!

Oh yeah, they charged me a $500 penalty for reducing my monthly payments to zero - but after reading this series, what did you expect?

Conclusion

I can’t tell you that all retirement funds are a scam, I would consider that to be extremely unlikely. What I CAN tell you is that in MY country, under CURRENT laws and the current economic environment - all big name retirement funds (and similar funds) are in on the same scam.

Maybe things are different in your country, maybe you are with a small company which actually looks after the needs of its clients as opposed to those of its executives and shareholders. At the end of the day, I believe that it’s worth taking a DEEP look at any such product, be it a retirement fund, a bank account, or really ANYTHING in which someone else has control over your money. It is extremely frightening that that the rot has been able to penetrate this deep into the financial industry which administrates our retirement savings. The process of doing so must have been lengthy, directed and deliberate. And if that can happen in one place, it can happen in others. No doubt this kind of thing IS happening all over the world - wherever it can and in whichever way it can - so inform yourself and protect yourself. As always, knowledge is power! (The more knowledge, the better - please don’t Dunning-Kruger!)

I am typing this post specifically as a warning to others, so that you can see what happened to me, so that you can get some idea of how the system defrauds the common man, and so that you can get an idea of the kind of things to watch out for. I hope that what I have written here can help a few others - I hope that it can prevent them from getting into such a situation in the first place!

The repercussions of what I have found are DEEPLY disturbing! Even I have been shocked at what I found, and I always expect the worst of both government and the big money which puppeteers it. Entire generations of my fellow countrymen are being defrauded. Those who are lucky enough to have money available to save up for retirement (most don’t) may well end up in the same boat as those who don’t! In the long-run this is a disaster for the state: because those who have a decent pension don’t require state support in order to survive. those who DON’T have a decent pension income become dependent on the state - cue even more socialist funding requirements. Nice own-goal government...

Of course the greatest tragedy is that the already pressured middle-class are continuing to slip into poverty. The lower end of the middle-class (a place I know all too well) is struggling terribly hard to remain solvent. Salary-earning families in my city are really struggling, I see it every day and it is heartbreaking. While the 1%ers remain protected, middle-class citizens get pushed past the tipping-point on a continuous basis. I think it’s absolutely criminal that those who are struggling but who are still trying to save for their futures, are going to be deprived of those futures. It makes my blood BOIL just thinking about it! Combined with rising costs, growing tyranny and the increased centralisation of everything to do with wealth, these people stand no chance. I could not be more incensed.

I suppose that a big lesson from all of this is; “Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing”. Don’t trust Mr Financial Advisor just because he is an industry-registered and government-certified financial advisor. I hope I have shown that neither the industry nor the government are in any way on your side here, both just want your money!

If I were to do it all again: young Bit Brain looking for a pension option (in a world long before crypto existed), then, knowing what I know now, I would seek out an independent advisor, someone who could be paid upfront. I would want someone who stands to gain no commission from what I invest in, and who isn’t paid by any company to sell their products. I would find someone impartial, even if that came at a high initial price (and it would have). I would have been far better off had I chosen that route.

At this stage I remind you that what I’m saying here is not financial advice: it’s the opinion of an ex-military blogger who specialises in cryptocurrencies. Having said that, I hoped that I have perhaps opened your eyes to what real financial advice often actually is: a scam. It’s a self-serving system of government and industry endorsed cronies who all pat one another’s backs with the money they make from shafting their customers.

So MY take-home message of not-financial-advice is: don’t trust any financial advisor who has something to gain from you investing through them.

To end this article off, I have one final - and very important - thing to say:

The main reason that I can even consider to terminate my retirement fund at all is because I hold cryptocurrencies. It’s the same reason I was able to resign when I did - effectively retiring myself from the workforce. The things I see in cryptocurrencies every week are mind-blowing. The amount of freedom they afford you is incredible, and extremely heart-warming! Crypto is absolutely going to eat the retirement fund industry! It is fundamentally better in every way! I sincerely hope that I will see more and more people shift their pension money into crypto instead of into crooked fiat-based funds. Sure, crypto may be risky; but in the long-term the volatility evens out, and it’s orders of magnitude less risky than what fiat is! Look at an up-to-date money supply chart and tell me that you really want to invest your future in that inflationary nightmare... No thanks.

P.S. I happened to stumble across this story earlier today. It’s a little news about a large California-based pension fund:

CalPERS Announces More Leverage to Increase Investments: https://economics21.org/html/calpers-announces-more-leverage-increase-investments-3630.html

“The California state pension plan, CalPERS, just announced it will take on more leverage in order to increase its investment in private equity. Taking this extra risk will enable to them to justify their projected 6.8% return. But this follows a long-running trend... ”

Retirement Fund Giant Calpers Votes to Use Leverage, More Alternative Assets: https://www.wsj.com/articles/retirement-fund-giant-calpers-votes-to-use-leverage-more-alternative-assets-11637032461

“The board of the nation’s largest pension fund voted Monday to use borrowed money and alternative assets to meet its investment-return target, even after lowering that target just a few months ago. The move by the $495 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System reflects the dimming prospects for safe publicly traded investments by households and institutions alike and sets a tone for increased risk-taking by pension funds around the country... ”

*Note: The names of products, bonuses, fees etc have been slightly altered in order to preserve anonymity. I would probably not have been be able to write this had I made myself identifiable and then named-and-shamed, the entire industry would be out looking for blood! So I apologise that I can’t be more specific, but realise that it doesn’t really matter. The important thing is that you see that major financial companies ARE NOT always trying to help you and that governments DON’T protect you - they serve themselves and collude with one another. EVERYONE EVERYWHERE should remain extra vigilant at all times and should check their own financial products for things which are similar to what I encountered or which are done with similar intentions.

Yours in crypto (fiat is dead to me!)

Bit Brain

"The secret to success: find out where people are going and get there first"
~ Mark Twain

"Crypto does not require institutional investment to succeed; institutions require crypto investments to remain successful"
~ Bit Brain

Bit Brain recommends:

Crypto Exchanges:

DISCLAIMER:

I am neither a financial advisor nor a professional. This is not financial advice, investment advice or trading advice. Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are my opinion and nothing more. Crypto is highly volatile and you can easily lose everything in crypto. You invest at your own risk! Information I post may be erroneous, incomplete or construed as being misleading. I will not be held responsible for anything which is incorrect, missing, false, out-of-date or fabricated. Any information you use is done so at your own risk. Always Do Your Own Research (DYOR) and realise that you and you alone are responsible for your crypto portfolio and whatever happens to it.

How my Retirement Fund ripped me off – Part 4