Birmingham-based company Cherish Wealth Management is no longer in existence, as it went into administration in 2016. However, it is now becoming apparent that this small company engaged in financial mis-selling on an industrial basis.
Its activities left many of its clients penniless. Clients were advised to transfer their pension funds from safe schemes into unsuitable high risk, unregulated investments. These included overseas property and forestry. It was very active in promoting the Invest US scheme and the Ethical Forestry scheme to many UK based investors.
Cherish Premier Wealth
Whilst many may breathe a sigh of relief to see the back of Cherish Wealth Management, a recent undercover ITV documentary featured the company. It was revealed that the company has now re-emerged under a new guise – Cherish Premier Wealth – and is also still being headed up by Cherish Wealth Management’s former directors and operating out of its old head office in Solihull.
The documentary went behind the scenes. It showed that the company was continuing to engage in high-pressure selling tactics. It is also repeatedly calling potential investors even when they had stated that they were not interested.
The documentary also showed sales staff being encouraged to promote fear in potential investors and it became apparent that there was a clear conflict of interest with Cherish Wealth Management recommending to their customers that they should invest in Invest US. Invest US is a housing scheme run by Stephen Wright. Wright was initially Cherish Wealth Management’s former MD.
Unregulated and high-risk investments
In the majority of cases, Cherish Wealth Management failed to properly assess whether the investments they were recommending were suitable for potential investors. Most investments would have been only been appropriate for high net worth individuals, who were knowledgeable and sophisticated investors.
Cherish Wealth Management also failed to inform their customers that many of the investments were unregulated and high risk.
As of December 2017, 229 successful claims have been made to the FSCS about Cherish Wealth management. Furthermore, at least 357 claims against Cherish Wealth Management were currently being processed by the FSCS. To date, the FSCS had paid out at least £6.7 million in compensation to Cherish Wealth Management’s former clients.
If you think that you may have been ill advised or mis-sold a pension investment by Cherish Wealth Management, or Cherish Premier Wealth, do get in touch to see how we can help you.