Let me assure all concerned this is not the case. In the unlikely, worst-case scenario, where another administrator or custodian could not be found and a liquidator eventually chose to redeem all investments, no one would lose their original investment – let alone “everything”.
Reyker’s charges for Merchant Investors are still, in my opinion, unclear, but one concern I have from piecing together what has been released by Reyker is that some investors could see over a tenth of their original investment swallowed up by Reyker’s imposed charges at maturity.
I have no issue with Reyker being paid for the work it is doing, as long as this is at a fair rate. Reyker has, not
surprisingly, now become a product provider itself and, according to its own literature, its charges for all of the services throughout the life of a plan will range from 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. This amount is, therefore, the maximum they charge within their own plans from start to finish. And yet, from what we know at the moment, it seems that many ex-Merchant clients could be charged considerably more by Reyker for a lot less work.
Reyker’s emergence as a product provider shows that this situation is an opportunity that they have understandably capitalised on now that they have the opportunity to benefit from the reinvestment of maturing Merchant products into their own.
Ian Lowes
Managing Director
Lowes Financial Management
Newcastle upon Tyne
