DLP investigating Pensions Law breaches

| 26/06/2020 | 39 Comments

(CNS): Following the recent Public Accounts Committee hearings and a number of public complaints about some pension plan administrators not following the law in relation to the pension withdrawal scheme, the Department of Labour and Pensions (DLP) has said it is reviewing the situation. “Multiple pension plan administrators” were being checked, officials said, to ensure they had followed processing timelines and were complying with the National Pensions (Amendment) Law 2020.

“While it is largely believed that a significant portion of the applications are being processed in a timely manner, where there are breaches of the timelines set out in the Law, DLP are actively preparing files to be submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions,” officials stated.

Fidelity is one major administrator that has openly admitted to being in contravention of the law but it is understood that there are other smaller pension companies that may also have failed to follow the law.

The new legislation was passed in April to allow private sector workers to access a $10,000 lump sum and 25% of the remaining fund balance to see them through the post COVID-19 economic fallout. The new law states that an administrator who does not comply with certain sections of the law commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of $10,000 or imprisonment for a term of one year.

Any applicant who has a complaint in relation to their application being processed or whose application has been refused can file an Appeal to the Director and should do so in writing and include their details, along with any supporting documents, and email them to dlp@gov.ky.


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Comments (39)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    The Fidelity case, just shows its a way to milk the pension money. Admin fees based on a percentage of funds under management, but only 2 staff employed.
    They have very little expenditure but still take massive fees in the millions every year.

    Then when monies are allowed to be withdrawn they delay and moan as it will reduce the fund they can change fees on, then try and charge extra redemption fees, that have been included in the millions of fees they have taken every year doing nothing.

    It is like they think it is there money and are loathe to give it back, terrible attitude for what is essentially a trustee.

  2. Highwayrobbery says:

    Fidelity and Britcay need to close down and stop robbing the people hard earn money. My brother applied to Silver Thatch one week and the next week he got his money. People look over your statements you might find hidden fees robbed out of your account.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I applied for a redemption from Silverthatch on May 1st. I requested to be paid in CI and was not paid until June 16th.

      By my count that was over 45 days, but I am not complaining.

      Just saying that all the admins are feeling the pinch.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    If it is one thing good that the government has done be it unintentionally is that they have exposed the nasty underbelly of these ridiculous pension schemes and what has been going on with them for years with no investigation or regulation.

    The next government or maybe even this one, knowing what they know now, should shut all of these plans down and provide us with a national pension fund. This way we can hold someone accountable even if it is just at the polls.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes.. agreed, with exceptions to silver thatch, they are the best

    • Anonymous says:

      The government has been complicit in the shadier dealings of providers. The ever increasing regulatory restrictions on ability of expatriates to get their money on cessation of residency. Even in this situation they are looking into delayed payments (probably as penalty to Fidelity for speaking the truth) but are totally mute on potential fraud of administrators cherry picking net asset value dates or applying irregular portfolio pricing and/or other accounting machinations to minimize withdrawing members payments….fraud.

  4. Bertie : B says:

    Maybe they invested in the defunct cruise dock . Funds where looking at that huge project . Not just one fund but many .

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  5. Anonymous says:

    They shouldnt be paying anything based on April NAV. The ultimate amount you receive should be based on May NAV even if they made a prepayment before knowing what that NAV is and then qdjust the final payout after they get it. If they do it any other way the government needs to step in.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    #brettisright

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  7. Covid Man says:

    This is all more smoke and mirrors. You have had for years loads of businesses taking pensions out of employees pay but never paying, then all these construction companies claiming everyone is a “sub contractor” so they do not have to pay any health or pension; then if a business is taken to court the case drags on for years and who ever knows if the business is ever made to pay up. The whole scheme is rife with corruption and slack or non existent enforcement. These pension companies will get off with it and the poor person whose money they have is screwed. If these paper Caymanians were back in there home country and pulled even the slightest of these breaches of the law, there frowzy behinds would be locked up; but this is the Cayman Islands the best country money can buy!

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  8. Anonymous says:

    have a received an email from Britcay stating that funds have been sent to the bank but may take longer to reach my account as the bank have to convert it to ci dollars from the us dollars they sent.
    as per the option on the withdrawal forms I chose the pay me in ci dollars to a ci account, I cant understand why they would send in us dollars when the ci was chosen.
    if the pension funds are going to pay in us dollars then why on earth did they put the currency option on the form

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    • Alohcin says:

      Most international companies here hold their funds in USD, so that’s not surprising. At least your pension company is sending you letters, I wish mine would let me know what’s going on with my money.

    • Anonymous says:

      Most International companies here keep their accounts in USD, so that’s not surprising. At least you are getting letters from your pension provider,
      I wish mine would send me a letter so i know what’s happening with my money.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Silver thatch paid out in ci dollars as I requested on the withdrawal form

  9. Anonymous says:

    BritCay – anybody remember that a couple of months after Hurricane “Ivan” they stopped paying out on property damage claims the assessors had already approved . Then for several days the general public who were trying to check on their own claims, were locked out of the office at Elizabethan Square. Was any explanation subsequently given.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    To date, none of my staff have received their pension withdrawal from Fidelity.

    Fidelity will never again receive a single penny from our firm. Once all of our team members have received their pension withdrawal, we will be transferring all remaining pension plans to another provider other than Fidelity. That’s 40+ pension plans.

    I will be making a formal complaint to DLP and request an investigation into the handling of our pension plans.

    As per law, I hope to see these POS pension administrators receive the maximum legal penalties.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I will be doing the same. Not one more installment will be paid to Fidelity and our plans will be moved to another firm.
      Would Silver Thatch be recommended by others?

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      • Mr Beast From The East says:

        I’ve been with Silver Thatch twice. I never had issues of transferring funds away from them, but OMG, a dead iguana could do a better job of providing investment “returns”.

      • Anonymous says:

        Island Heritage is worth looking into. I’m very happy and have online access to check my funds and control my investments at and when I see fit, updates happen monthly and they’re very transparent.

  11. Anonymous says:

    What a pile of garbage. Asking the pension administrators to cut a NAV and honor thousands of redemptions with little to no notice period is like asking a 500 pound man to run a 5K on 5 minutes notice.

    They aren’t designed for mass withdrawals.

    All these posts make it seem like the administrators, who by the way don’t make any of the investment decisions, are purposefully out to get you.

    In actual fact they are fellow Caymanians who have all been working 14 hour days and weekends for the past 8 weeks trying to meet a ridiculous mandate.

    Why not focus your energy on your government for making you withdraw your own money, instead of trimming their own spending and providing you with a stimulus.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I agree with you in part. Certainly this was unprecedented and the employees deserve no blame. That said, failure to acknowledge the requests and communicate properly with plan members falls squarely on management.

      Neither Britcay nor Fidelity has impressed anyone here. And while the guy from Fidelity may have been correct in pointing out the difficulties with what the government had done, his attitude will have cost his company business even if it doesn’t cost him his job.

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    • Anonymous says:

      First of all, Government is “not”making” me withdraw my money, I am choosing to do so of my own accord..Leaving it with Fidelity is the worst decision, I could make at this time. I will put this money into a fund that will allow me to earn a decent return and not just Fidelity.

      Secondly, it is not our problem that Fidelity did not have staff or the ability to upload a form onto their website. A company managing billions of dollars and charging the fees they have been charging has no sympathy from me and in fact, this is probably why we weren’t earning any money because there was no one watching the funds or ensuring that they were being profitable.

      Why do you think there are so many pension providers on this island. If this wasn’t a get rich quick scheme for them they wouldn’t have taken it on. Managing billions of dollars with very few getting to retirement age and then only having to pay out a $1000 per month while still getting their money in fees whether the investments are profitable or not..

      How would you feel that if after 15 years of investing your money you find that you hardly made a dollars but the guy you had investing for you had made a fortune off it?

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      • Anonymous says:

        Fidelity was not managing the money. It’s managed by the owner of the oceanfront house next to Spotts beach (DK) amongst others.

    • Anonymous says:

      Hmmm.. Yeah well most of these ‘administrator’ sub out their administration to some big name corporate providers. So if they are charging double fees get cracking Jack

  12. Anonymous says:

    Why is Britcay still not giving us copies of the May NAV?

    After everyone including myself complained that they had used the wrong NAV, a letter was sent out trying to explain it away by saying that they were paying us partially from the April NAV and would pay us the rest from the May NAV.

    I have no clue what the May NAV was but according to their letter it was higher than May.

    I received a lump sum in my bank account with no explanation as to a break down. A simple calculation showing the April NAV’s total amount less CI$10K plus 25% or the remaining balance. I had to do the math backwards to figure what the original amount. They literally have no accountability and believe that we ill just go away if they send us a few dollars.

    What bothers me with this is that they have found a way to say they are complying with the law if the give us a partial amount of the money owed. If you read the letter they do not give us a date whereby they agree to pay. They are flaunting the law because they now if I spend any of that money that I have accepted it. Well, it is sitting right there in my bank account in case I need to take them to court. I have been speaking to an attorney to see if it is possible for me and several of the other employees to file a joint lawsuit. I am not taking this lightly and they better believe I will expose them.

    I am so sick of Britcay and their terrible customer service. I hope and pray that this is the first one that is investigated..The best advice I can give everyone is to stay away from Britcay and Fidelity!

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    • Anon says:

      Organise a group. I’ll sign up. Been looking at the same action and identifying peers.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I just logged on the Colonial pension portal to look for May stmt with the May NAV, as at June 28, Britcay still does not have this available. Lmao they are only current up to April 2020 which is where they paid me from. No date given on when I’ll get my second pymt for the difference. I really believe they thought ppl would just satisfy with whatever they paid in to your bank. I want my money Britcay!

        • Anonymous says:

          It sounds like they’ve been caught out and need to adjust some transactions they initially processed on the incorrect NAV date. Let’s just hope it’s not taking longer as they start making subjective adjustments.

    • Anonymous says:

      They shouldnt be paying anything based on April NAV. The ultimate amount you receive should be based on May NAV even if they made a prepayment before knowing what that NAV is and then qdjust the final payout after they get it. If they do it any other way the government needs to step in.

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    • Anonymous says:

      It can be estimated based on April NAV but needs to be trued up to May (which definitely would have been higher if you look at US indices). If that was done it would be ok but why did it take complaints for them to acknowledge they had used this method? Also you need to be concerned about what is taking them so long to calculate the May NAV…are they manipulating the process to create a lower NAV? Abnormal and excessive reserves, pricing haircuts, pricing policy changes?

  13. Anonymous says:

    $1195.00 admin fee for the pleasure of them giving me my own money…… Britcay

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Gee, which of a pension plans’ medial grunt administrators gets to go to jail for the team? Do they gather all staff to the board room and draw straws? Any sanction for the Director and the Pension Board membership?

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  15. Calvin Christian says:

    The fraud department should do a forensic audit on all of those pension companies that the fund investments are in order. Money is the root of evil. Some people get sticky fingers when they handle a lot of money.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Pension funds are segregated in cayman which means they are 100% safe and protected by the government and cima. No different then bank accounts and investment brokerage accounts…

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  16. Anonymous says:

    Just timeliness of payments are being investigated? What about allegations regarding utilization of incorrect net asset value dates or applying punitive hair cuts to portfolio valuations or otherwise accruing excessive liquidation reserves?

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