quilterinternational.com Reviews 69

They blame others and take no responsibility for their lack of actions to advise of our tax liabilities when we changed countries. Their complaints process is a waste of time. Now that I was surrendering the entire portfolio , it’s taking over a month, and I haven’t seen my money. Find another platform unless you want to waste £££

Don't rely on their complaint department making things right, they just blamed the other financial parties. and don't care for the emotional duress they place you under

DO NOT INVEST WITH THESE PEOPLE.

Was given bad financial advice and recommended a structured note that ultimately will or most likely will make me lose all of my hard earned GBP 75,000!

Please don’t make the mistake I made and don’t fall for this scam. DO NOT INVEST WITH THEM.

What a on going scam not paying on the day the policy as a staff said lost £177 pounds absolutely disgusting company report to the fca

While I cannot ignore the initial struggles I faced with UTMOST, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, considering the positive resolution that Damian from payments team and Sam lane helped bring about. UTMOST may need to work on improving its communication and customer service

In the end my funds were released but i must admit that i encountered a series frustration that made me question my decision to use UTMOST's services.

Utmost are absolutely shocking. My 82 year old mother is having endless delays in receiving her money which is putting her in extreme hardship. Do not invest with them.

This has been going on for over a year.

Very similar experience to other posters here - just cannot seem to receive payment from Isle of Man Managed Capital Account. Completely fobbed off when I phone or email them (politely - sounds like a script).
I have had this holding through Old Mutual/Quilter incarnations - they were both excellent, but Utmost is absolutely dire. Do not trust them with any of your money - appalling.

My wife and I took out an Executive Investment Bond (EIB) in March 2013 transferring a small amount of cash and shares and followed that up with a couple of top ups in 2014 amounting to a couple of hundred thousand dollars in total.

The EIB is an attractive product. After an initial 'lock-up' period of 5 years, you are free to move your money out. Admin and transfer costs are low and the platform offers the possibility of holding a very broad range of financial assets. The online platform while not state of the art is nevertheless accessible and informative tracking performance over time etc.

Over the ten years that we held the EIB we doubled our initial investment primarily through some astute/lucky stock picks. So far so good.

Our experience with Utmost International soured significantly however when we decided in March this year to fully redeem the EIB and transfer our assets to another platform. After initially acknowledging receipt of our surrender application we were hit a few weeks later with a request for full disclosure of source of wealth on the basis that we were 'politically exposed persons by association' (PEPA) by virtue of our employment in a government-linked educational organisation in the Middle East.

While the grounds for designating us PEPAs were spurious to say the least we nevertheless complied and within a week or so provided, to quote our independent financial advisor, the War & Peace of information establishing our bona fides; that our couple of hundred thousand were not in fact ill-gotten gains but hard earned savings...

There then began an interminable almost Kafkaesque back-and-forth of approvals followed by rejections followed by requests for additional information, changes to the wording of certifications, etc. I lost track of the number of times I had to call the customer service hotline, wait for (at times) up to 40-45 mins, go through an over-elaborate security check before getting to ask my questions. While the customer service staff were always polite they were rarely able to help or provide meaningful information as to why the process was taking so long to complete. This caused significant stress to the point where we were contemplating the possibility of having to take legal action to secure our property.

In any event, after over 5 months of the above, we finally completed the surrender and received our funds and assets.

In terms of how Utmost International can improve their approach, I have the following suggestions to make:

1. All know-your-client information should be collected upon application for the opening of an account and not after-the-fact and certainly not when a client asks to withdraw funds;

2. Equally, assessments of whether or not someone is a PEP, PEPA, or other children's cartoon character should happen upon application and not after-the-fact and certainly not when a client asks to withdraw their funds;

3. Regulatory changes that require additional information from clients or lead to changes in the classification of said clients should be communicated when they happen and not several years later when the client asks to withdraw their funds; and

4. The withdrawal/surrender process should be communicated clearly along with a realistic estimate of the timeline.

As with just about all those leaving a review my experience of Utmost has been appalling to put it mildly. I submitted my surrender forms online on 21/7/23, my portfolio was all in cash from 24/7/23 and todate I can get no information about a payment date. The last reply even indicated that I was the one contributing to the delay by complaining about the terrible service. Definitely a company to avoid and one can only imagine as to what the motivation is for their policy of delaying payments.
Michael P Brown

Do not give any money to them!
I had a savings account with Royal Skandia/Quilter/Utmost for years. Since 2 May 2023 I'm trying to get my money out. I have submitted all required documents (a pain) but now there is no reaction from them any more. I have written numerous emails, but no response. My online account balance has been set to 0, but I have not received the money. I formally complained but you only get a standard answer. Have reported it to the constabulary of the Isle of Man, let's see what happens.

Bloody awful company. Money invested would be worth more if I'd put it in a box under the bed. Do NOT invest with this company.

I am writing this after initiating my policy surrender on 6/06/23 and today is 11/7/23 I am still waiting for my money. It’s sad that you have to follow all the rules when it comes to buying a policy but there is no rules when will u get ur money once it’s completed or you surrender. After chasing people for more than a month still no hope, and to my surprise they are still deducting money from my final surrender value.

Been waiting 8 weeks now for my surrender and withdrawal of policy. It’s criminal to hold onto our money this long. Our financial advisors chase almost daily but Utmost refuse to give any date as to when we will revive our money. The staff are hostile and blame a back log. Thinking of going to ombudsman now as we need our money waiting over 8 weeks is unacceptable.

I have held a SIPP with Skandia/Old Mutual/Quilter and now called Utmost International since 2011. It is the worst investment decision I have ever made and the value of the pension is now about 60% of what it was in 2011, which is partly due to a crooked/unscrupulous financial advisor. The SIPP is administered by another company in the Isle of Man who also charge high fees. Therefore I decided to transfer what remains of the SIPP to a UK financial company and signed forms with them on the 8th December 2022. I was then sent forms in January by the SIPP administrative company which I returned and hoped that the SIPP would be transferred in a reasonable time. I am still waiting for that transfer to happen and when I contact these IOM companies I get excuses over deeds of assignments and need to take charges etc. I have contacted the IOM Financial Authority but apparently they will not act on individual cases but leave it to the companies to self regulate!! All this time Utmost and the SIPP administrator are charging me their fees for doing nothing! They have no incentive to make this transfer happen. It is daylight robbery. I would not recommend this company to my worst enemy. They appear to be in chaos and completely incompetent.

In reply to the comment from Utmost, I had already submitted a formal complaint to yourselves but I was told that as it is a SIPP it has to be the trustee who submits the complaint. As the trustee's interests are not necessarily mine this is an easy way out for Utmost. I have also contacted the Island's Pension Ombudsman to try to get this issue resolved.

Requested cashing my EIB on 07 June 23, last asset was sold on 09June 23. Two weeks later and have no idea where my money is. I am potentially losing £250 a week in interest payments. No communication from Utmost to inform me of what is going on. Was very concerned I had been scammed but reading other reviews this seems par for the course for Utmost. No wonder they change the name of the company so often.

I had held my executive redemption bond for more than 8 years and as it had only gained about 6% I decided to cash it. Utmost received the instruction on 23 May and their website showed the various holdings all cashed by 31 May, but in early June, I had received no payment or information on progress. I chased Abbey Wealth, who deal with my finances and they contacted Utmost who then responded that they were having difficulties contacting the joint policyholder. This alarmed me and my wife, because I was the sole policyholder and my wife named as the beneficiary, yet Utmost were naming a woman, who we had never heard of as a joint policyholder. More phone calls to Utmost and a representative admitted there must have been an error and they would proceed with payment. A week later, still nothing from Utmost so I again called, this time demanding action forcibly. Within hours I received an e mail that the payment had been processed and would go to senior level for approval. I still await the payment but am assured it is on the way. I have received no communication of apology for the distress they caused my wife and my self about the joint policyholder error. Needless to say I will never again deal with Utmost.

Joining the chorus to advise people to invest their hard earned money elsewhere - your return will be eaten away by outrageous fees that are not linked to the actual performance of the fund. Poor customer service, low responsiveness and I am still waiting for my funds to be released following my having enough and terminating the policy. There is something fishy about a company behaving that way apparently doing so well (though that must be on basis of faith since they are privately held and therefore nobody can check the truth on their financial health). In all likelihood you are supporting a company that mostly caters to ultra high net worth individuals who don't care about the fees being charged because their money is in "excess" to them and unlike for us not really "hard earned" - This is why I recommend you go with mainstream, publicly listed and regulated financial institutions because it is quite clear that we are supporting a dubious part of the financial industry by investing through companies like Utmost.

Started proceedings to encash my investment with Utmost on the 3rd. April via the De Vere Group. I have received a letter from Utmost with a surrender date of 19th. April 2023 although to date (8th. May) no money has been received. A few requests received and responded to quickly with regards to verification although no response from Utmost until you supply a follow up Email. 'Customer Service' is pretty bad and so called 'security' is OTT. Dreadfull!!!!!
A typical well worded but meaningless response from the company. June is almost over and account closure/payments still not finalised.

Disastrous- Utmost has acquired the Quilter portfolio and now verification requests are unpredictable. There is no follow up and no customer service. Expect a standard withdrawal to take over a month.

I started a withdrawal request on my Utmost policy on the 4th of April. Today I was told that I have to wait until the 21st April to receive my payment. When I made my withdrawal request Utmost said they would contact all policyholders for approval. This they never did. Other policyholders on their own initiative have to go into their websites without notification from Utmost and approve the withdrawal. Then despite Utmost having my bank details on file they demanded a recent statement. When this was sent they claimed they could not read it. Another statement was sent but no acknowledgment of receipt and legibility was received. I then had to undertake a 15 minute security check. Having passed this check Utmost gave no advice when I could expect payment and their Website is also silent in this respect. Email correspondence requesting update information went unanswered until further prodding. When eventually an Utmost email was received I was told the underlying assets sales were in progress, however, this action is not reflected on the website or policy valuation nor was I given a date when I could receive payment. My Financial Advisor then, at my request, phoned Utmost to find out what was happening. It took him 30 minutes to get through to Utmost and then another 20 minutes to clear their security. That is how I eventually learned that my withdrawal payment would take another 4 days. The Utmost Website claims the withdrawal process is a simple 3 step process. FAR from it.

By far and away the worst investment I’ve ever made.

I only went with it as it was supposedly Spanish tax compliant…

But that only works if it shows a profit which it singularly has failed to do in the best part of 2 years since I took it out and is currently showing around a 20 % loss.

Not only can the incompetents not pick their own noses as I’ve significantly outperformed them with funds I’ve chosen myself (and I’m certainly no expert), they then have the nerve to charge outrageous fees for their incompetence.

Avoid at all costs and do not get conned by expat financial advisers with these supposed tax compliant schemes.

Just invest in proven low fee schemes like fundsmith and vanguard and just pay the tax every year on any profits.

It’s way more profitable than these clowns.

Update 1/3/23….

Took them up on their offer and it got worse.

My original review and assessment stands.