MEETING someone who has lost most of their life savings in an investment that has gone wrong is heart-wrenching. Their pain and helplessness is overwhelming, especially in the case of those in the evening of their life when they should be looking forward to a financially secure retirement. How, you wonder, will they survive without the funds to support even a very modest existence? For them, of course, it is a fearful prospect.
When you discover their money has gone through no fault of their own, apart from being overly trusting and optimistic, but through the greed and criminality of others, your ire grows.
This is the scenario facing a growing number of expat investors here in Thailand who have handed over their hard-earned savings to people claiming to be financial experts but whose only real goal is to extract maximum commission for setting up the deal.
Most investors know there are risks involved in putting their money in a business. If their luck holds, they might enjoy a healthy return. If not, their investment will be worth somewhat less than their original stake. Either way they have the choice to cash in, or stay in.
When you discover their money has gone through no fault of their own, apart from being overly trusting and optimistic, but through the greed and criminality of others, your ire grows.
This is the scenario facing a growing number of expat investors here in Thailand who have handed over their hard-earned savings to people claiming to be financial experts but whose only real goal is to extract maximum commission for setting up the deal.
Most investors know there are risks involved in putting their money in a business. If their luck holds, they might enjoy a healthy return. If not, their investment will be worth somewhat less than their original stake. Either way they have the choice to cash in, or stay in.
What no one expects is for their entire investment to simply disappear, as quickly as melting snow. Sadly this seems to be the case with the LMIM debacle featured on several occasions in this magazine. The property fund may have started out as a reasonably legitimate business idea, but for many reasons eventually degenerated into nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, with its owners getting so desperate for cash to keep this Titanic afloat they kept on selling it to unwitting investors right up the last moment.
In the end, of course, it sank. And with it the hopes and aspirations of investors who had put their trust in so-called financial advisers to provide a safe and reasonably prosperous future.
Today, it is incredibly sad to come across expats, often in their latter years, who lost money in LMIM. Having given up hope of any compensation, they face a desperate situation. It’s now all too easy but incredibly crass to recite admonishing clichés like “if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.” The fact is, these people are not losers. What they have lost is their
In the end, of course, it sank. And with it the hopes and aspirations of investors who had put their trust in so-called financial advisers to provide a safe and reasonably prosperous future.
Today, it is incredibly sad to come across expats, often in their latter years, who lost money in LMIM. Having given up hope of any compensation, they face a desperate situation. It’s now all too easy but incredibly crass to recite admonishing clichés like “if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.” The fact is, these people are not losers. What they have lost is their
