Vstar investors to lose again

Having already lost up to a quarter of a billion dollars in failed finance company investments, clients of the now defunct Vestar financial planning group are about to lose again, according to the Exposing Unacceptable Financial Activities group.

EUFA coordinator Suzanne Edmonds is championing the rights of disaffected investors who "we believe have lost money as a result of Vestar's negligent investment advice," says Edmonds.

But unless investors file notification of a claim within the next ten days, the amount of compensation available to them will reduce substantially and they will lose out a second time, according to Edmonds.

"We are working with a number of former Vestar advisers who disagreed with Vestar's practices and are willing to give evidence against their former employer. It appears they had no discretion and were forced by the investment committee to recommend investments which included most of the failed finance companies, some of which were related to Vestar."

EUFA has discovered from discussions with these advisers that their insurance policies lapse at the end of October. Unless investors file an immediate notification of claim they will be unable to make any claims on that insurance and will lose out on that avenue of redress."

Edmonds is urging clients of Vestar, Northplan, Jones Financial Services, Westplan, Colin Strang Financial Services and Swains who have money tied up in finance companies in receivership or moratorium to register their interest immediately through www.eufa.co.nz.

"If they don't, they will lose the right to make a claim against insurance policies with coverage that could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. We are offering to file a notification of claim on each investor's behalf at no charge. But they really do need to act now," says Edmonds.