|
THE Police said on Friday they are investigating claims by clients of Acclaim Insurance Brokers that their monies were moved from one financial advisor to another without their consent.
Former clients of Acclaim who are affected by this transfer are also urged by the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) to do a thorough check on their accounts to determine if their investment portfolios have changed.
On Thursday, The Straits Times reported that funds of about 2,000 clients of the financial advisory arm of Acclaim were shifted to Leadenhall Insurance Brokers in July.
The shift came after 26 financial advisory representatives left Acclaim to work at Leadenhall when it set up its financial advisory arm.
Acclaim chief executive Anthony Lim had said the total sum invested by the nearly 2,000 clients was about $57 million.
These clients had invested their Central Provident Fund (CPF) cash in unit trusts.
Said a police spokesman: 'Police confirm that we have received reports and are looking into the matter.'
He declined to comment on how many reports have been filed on the matter.
Case on Friday said it is appalled at the reported development.
This is because it expects all financial institutions here to display a high level of integrity in managing the investment accounts of consumers.
Case's executive director Seah Seng Choon said that such action taken to transfer accounts from one financial institution to another without the consent of consumers will certainly 'undermine their interest and confidence'.
'We would like to see that measures are being put in place to alert former Acclaim customers who may not be aware of this episode so that they could take corrective actions at this point in time,' said Mr Seah.
To make matters worse, some clients say they have been hit with charges based on transactions they never authorised. This was stated in one of three police reports The Straits Times has obtained.
They claimed that a 3 per cent sales fee for transactions had been deducted from their CPF accounts.
Mr Seah advised those who find any changes that are not authorised to make an immediate police report.
'Consumers should claim damages from Leadenhall if they suffered lost as a result of any unauthorised changes to their account,' he added.
| 
