STERLING DUNBAR Financial Advisor

[Just Weird]

On ‎3‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 9:43 AM, BobHG46 said:

As honest as the day is long. Gives good advice and directs investors to invest directly with the recommended funds as Sterling Dunbar, run by Colin Wilson,  does not handle any clients' monies. Sterling Dunbar operates under the umbrella of Phoenix Consultants whose office is in BB Building, Asoke. 

"Gives good advice..."

It does, does it?  What do you base your opinion on?

 

Sterling Dunbar gives investment advice and then takes indemnity commission up front from the respective investment companies after those companies have received the clients money.  That commission comes directly from the investors funds! 

 

"Sterling Dunbar operates under the umbrella of Phoenix Consultants..."

Is Phoenix registered with the SEC in Thailand?

[Misty]

2 hours ago, Just Weird said:

 

"Sterling Dunbar operates under the umbrella of Phoenix Consultants..."

Is Phoenix registered with the SEC in Thailand?

Nope.  Neither Sterling Dunbar nor Phoenix Consultants have licenses.  Operating an investment firm without a license is against Thai securities law. Any unlicensed individual who sells financial products or gives financial "advice" would also be breaking Thai securities law.

[Just Weird]

9 hours ago, Misty said:

Nope.  Neither Sterling Dunbar nor Phoenix Consultants have licenses.  Operating an investment firm without a license is against Thai securities law. Any unlicensed individual who sells financial products or gives financial "advice" would also be breaking Thai securities law.

I know that, that was my point that some people choose to ignore.

[Just Weird]

I find it interesting that neither Sterling Dunbar nor Phoenix seem to want to defend themselves or produce evidence that they are legitimate, qualified and working legally.   

[Misty]

8 hours ago, Just Weird said:

I know that, that was my point that some people choose to ignore.

Yes indeed, ignore or are unaware of, and to their detriment.  With a little due diligence that whole LMIM debacle from a few years back could have been avoided, as could many financial mishaps as well as outright frauds.

[steve73]

11 hours ago, Benroon said:

Yes I should have said NEW ISA investment

 

Re CGT there Is an enormous tax bill waiting for you if you sell a UK property as an expat

 

Indeed QROPS is dead now - a 25% transfer charge was introduced in 2017 (did you transfer it here ? I'm not aware of any thai pension schemes they would transfer it to)

CGT.. yes, they've screwed overseas property owners selling now, but  there's no CGT on any other asset sales.

 

I moved my pension into a QROPS in late 2015, so received the full amount.  I'm using a company in Gibraltar, so any income (when I decide to start taking it) will be taxed at a flat 2.5%.   

[Oxx]

12 hours ago, Benroon said:

Re CGT there Is an enormous tax bill waiting for you if you sell a UK property as an expat

 

This is a bit of an exaggeration.

 

You are only taxed on the capital gain after April 6, 2015 when the new rules came into force.  The average house has, since then, only gone up 15.4% in value.  It's this 15.4% that will potentially be taxed.

 

The applicable tax rate is 18% or 28%, according to circumstances.

 

So, supposing you had a property worth GBP 200,000 in April 2015, which was now worth GBP 230,776. you'd be taxed on GBP 30,776.  Assuming the higher (28%) rate, you'd have to pay GBP 8,617 in CGT.  However, there is an annual CGT allowance of GBP 11,700, so in this case the expat would pay precisely zero.  Hardly an "enormous tax bill".

 

Incidentally, even if you're resident in the UK, there's only a CGT exemption for your primary residence.  Since expats clearly don't have their primary residence in the UK, there's nothing unreasonable about the current treatment.

[Oxx]

6 hours ago, Benroon said:

Also are you sure CGT is applicable to expats ? I thought it had been 'removed'

 

Generally expats are not subject to CGT on their UK capital gains (e.g. on share investments).  Property, however, is an exception.

[YorkshireTyke]

Update from original poster.

 

Colin Wilson has just replied with a follow up email.

 

The main topic of this mail was the 'Aria real Asset Income Fund'.

 

Quote ''Is a particularly good investment. It pays 6% income per year as well as averaging another 6% on capital appreciation since inception. It is what is known as UCITS meaning it is under strict regulation from the EU making it very safe.''

[Misty]

19 minutes ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Update from original poster.

 

Colin Wilson has just replied with a follow up email.

 

The main topic of this mail was the 'Aria real Asset Income Fund'.

 

Quote ''Is a particularly good investment. It pays 6% income per year as well as averaging another 6% on capital appreciation since inception. It is what is known as UCITS meaning it is under strict regulation from the EU making it very safe.''

Not sure reason for this post... tempted?

 

If so, please do some reading about the type of account this fund will be held in, how much in insurance wrapper fees will be taken out and for how many years after you are locked in, and also how quickly the supposedly great performance of other regulated funds like this one can head south. LMIM comes to mind again...

 

And then find out a bit more about Sterling Dunbar and the people behind it.

 

 

[YorkshireTyke]

1 minute ago, Misty said:

Not sure reason for this post... tempted?

 

If so, please do some reading about the type of account this fund will be held in, how much in insurance wrapper fees will be taken out and for how many years after you are locked in, and also how quickly the supposedly great performance of other regulated funds like this one can head south. LMIM comes to mind again...

 

And then find out a bit more about Sterling Dunbar and the people behind it.

 

 

No ,not tempted after reading everyone's post, just updating everyone and interested in comments. Too many people start a post then never post again on the topic they started.

[Oxx]

23 minutes ago, YorkshireTyke said:

The main topic of this mail was the 'Aria real Asset Income Fund'.

 

Quote ''Is a particularly good investment. It pays 6% income per year as well as averaging another 6% on capital appreciation since inception.

 

Well, that's not what the fund's fact sheet states for recent performance.  The latest fact sheet I could find is dated May 2018.  It shows that the fund returned as follows:

 

2017 - 3.1%

2016 - 3.9%

2015 - 3.9%

2014 - 3.7%

 

The AMC is 0.95%, and there's a performance fee of 20%.  Unacceptable.

 

It invests in other funds which have their own charges on top of this.

 

It's odd that the company's website itself doesn't appear to mention the fund at all.

 

Another warning flag is that the fund is not listed on TrustNet Offshore  (see https://www.trustnetoffshore.com/Investments/Perf.aspx?univ=DC&Pf_Domicile=MLT&Pf_Manager=ARIC&Pf_sortedColumn=NameFull&Pf_sortedDirection=Asc if you have an account with them).

 

Latest factsheet at:

 

http://www.nebafinancialsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Real-Asset-Income-Fund-Factsheet-May18-02b.pdf

 

[wordchild]

An Incredible  investment recommendation!  Did the OP indicate, on his intro form , that (for his first investment) he only wanted to invest in obscure,risky,c—-p?! 

Another lesson, funds that are marketed as low risk are sometimes the exact opposite. Just because a fund is not linked to the stock market, it does not mean it is safe. Low volatility , so called, structured funds, may just be full of smoke and mirrors, with huge,huge fees being raked off to all the various layers of “advisers “. There have been a few of these marketed over the last few years and in some cases investors have lost most of their initial investment.

Be very very careful!

[ThomasThBKK]

Didn't read the whole thread but if u just want to safely invest money in a longterm fund i would highly recommend u the US Index funds a la Vanguard and Fidelity.

 

nearly no fees and on avg good returns, all proven to work since many years and highly regulated.

[wordchild]

32 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Didn't read the whole thread but if u just want to safely invest money in a longterm fund i would highly recommend u the US Index funds a la Vanguard and Fidelity.

 

nearly no fees and on avg good returns, all proven to work since many years and highly regulated.

Personally I wouldn’t go for a US index fund now,  Europe,Asia , Australia all look better bets ,to me, from here and maybe for a few years to come: but I think the underlying point is bang on. Go for a low cost,  highly visible fund , from a quality institution, that most people would have heard of! Try to avoid obscure dross, from an institution you have never heard of.

[Oxx]

8 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Didn't read the whole thread but if u just want to safely invest money in a longterm fund i would highly recommend u the US Index funds

 

Investing in a single economy? That's like going to the casino and putting all your money on red.

 

Proper diversification is the way to go.

 

And index funds are for people who are happy with mediocre performance and are too lazy to seek out the best fund managers who can consistently outperform the market over years and decades.

[Oxx]

Yes.

 

"For individuals, the CGT charge is at 18% for basic rate taxpayers and at 28% for higher and additional rate taxpayers. The applicable rate will be determined by reference to the non-UK resident individual’s UK income levels for the relevant tax year. They will be entitled to the CGT annual exemption."

 

https://www.shipleys.com/resources/issue/CGT-non-uk-residents