CompaniesSep 16 2013

Clubfinance tells Massow clients to seek advice

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Discount broker and low-cost investment platform provider Clubfinance has completed the acquisition of the client bank of Ivan Massow’s Paymemy.com business.

At the end of August, former adviser Ivan Massow announced that he had closed his commission recovery business, Massow’s, which operated through the website Paymemy.com, due to escalating regulatory costs.

Clubfinance said it offered to take on the clients of Paymemy.com in late August when it became aware that the business was closing down, leaving investors who had signed up to the service with limited options regarding where they could continue to receive trail commission rebates.

All negotiations and due diligence have now been completed and the former Paymemy.com client bank has been legally transferred to Clubfinance Ltd, the firm added.

The firm will be writing to former Paymemy.com clients highlighting that if they think they need advice, they should seek it.

David Scrivens, Clubfinance director and co-founder, said: “Paymemy.com’s clients were left in a difficult position by the closure of the business. We realised this and contacted Ivan offering to take them on.

“By stepping in this way Clubfinance has saved these investors what might have been a great deal of frustration and complexity trying to make alternative arrangements by themselves. Ultimately, they may have been unable to continue collecting trail commission rebates.

“The margins in a stand-alone trail commission-rebating business are wafer thin and Ivan has not been the only service to come to realise that in some cases this can make a business unsustainable. Our wider discount brokerage services – and Frequent Trader investment platform – mean that our trail commission rebating service is just one of a number of diverse revenue streams.”

Mr Scrivens added: “We have no wish to service clients with an execution-only service who want or need advice.

“We were pleased that Ivan was keen to ensure that his former clients would be looked after.”