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标题: 看看USC,CST在2004年受到的处罚 [打印本页]

作者: WendyQC 时间: 2008-9-4 22:46
标题: 看看USC,CST在2004年受到的处罚
以下为转贴

USC，CST (不清楚其他的)，都号称是Non-profit organization, 实际上，是non-profit organization的下属的营利公司。去年夏天(2004)， Ontario Security Commission 勒令USC和CST整顿，因为太多的misleading sales pitches. 最主要的是，你要是买这两间公司的RESP，限制很多，而且，你第一年的供款，几乎全是sales agent的commission. 你要是任何原因，不供了或者想转到其他公司，第一年的供款是不退的。俺是建议，买银行的RESP，可以买股票等。

原文

The Ontario Securities Commission cracks down on RESP sector

Friday, Jul 16, 2004
By KAREN HOWLETT AND PAUL LDIE

The Ontario Securities Commission
1)禁止2家公司销售, USC and Global Educational Marketing Corp.
2)要求3 家公司每月回报. Allianz, CST, and Children's Education Funds Inc

USC Education Savings Plans Inc. and Global Educational Marketing Corp. cannot hire new sales staff or open new branches under conditions placed on their registration by the Ontario Securities Commission. They have not been barred from doing new business. USC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the not-for-profit International Scholarship Foundation.

The Ontario Securities Commission has blocked two of the leading players in Canada's burgeoning education savings plan sector from taking on new business and put a host of restrictions on others in a crackdown on an industry it says is rife with problems.

Canadians have plunked $12.8-billion into registered savings plans to help finance the mounting cost of postsecondary education for their children. Growth in these plans has exploded from $2.5-billion in assets in 1998, when the federal government introduced the Canada Education Savings Grant. The grants add 20 per cent to the first $2,000 in contributions each year.

In Ontario alone, 14 firms are registered with securities regulators as scholarship plan dealers, including eight fund companies. The OSC announced Thursday that it has uncovered numerous problems involving the business, sales and disclosure practices of six firms. As a result, it has slapped conditions on the registrations of these firms for an indefinite period until the problems are corrected. Two of the firms are barred from hiring new sales staff and opening new branches.

The three largest players involved, Allianz Education Funds Inc., CST Consultants Inc. and USC Education Savings Plans Inc., account for nearly $5-billion in assets and more than 600,000 plans.

OSC officials said Canadians with plans at these firms have no reason to worry about the safety of their investment, because the problems mainly deal with how the companies operate their business.

“The issues that were raised don't relate to prudential issues or accounting. They relate to sales practices,” said OSC enforcement director Michael Watson.

Paul Renaud, an executive member of the RESP Dealers Association of Canada and a vice-president of USC, said the industry has been working with the OSC and other provincial securities regulators for the past year on the issues raised.

“Certainly the report, as it has been presented, can be read as somewhat of a concern,” Mr. Renaud said. “A lot of [the issues] have been addressed and satisfied and the remaining ones we are very confident that all of the members will be able to quickly and completely address them in very short order.”

The OSC, however, said the industry has been dragging its feet in dealing with the problems. The regulator said the Alberta Securities Commission prepared an industry report on common deficiencies with scholarship plan dealers in 2002. A year later, many of the deficiencies were still prevalent during a national compliance review done by several provincial regulators, the OSC said.

The commission says it plans to closely monitor scholarship plan dealers and is considering new rules to better regulate the industry. It said it has not ruled out enforcement action if compliance is not “swiftly and thoroughly” improved.

Kevin Connolly, president and chief executive officer of Toronto-based Allianz, said the industry welcomes the regulatory scrutiny.

“We've been trying to get their attention for years and all of a sudden now we have their attention,” he said. “We have work to do to move more toward the industry practices that they expect. This is normal evolution for our industry that we have to take seriously.”

The two companies that have been barred from taking on new business effective immediately are USC, which manages $1.6-billion in assets, and Global Educational Marketing Corp.

Three of the firms — Allianz, CST, and Children's Education Funds Inc. — are required to report monthly to the OSC.

H&R Block Canada Financial Services Inc., a relative newcomer to the industry, has been barred from having employees in sister company H&R Block Canada Inc. sell scholarship plans.

Todd McCallum, president of H&R Block Canada Financial Services, said the regulator wants the tax preparation business kept separate from the scholarship plan operation.

The OSC says in its report that it found numerous problems at the funds, including: inadequate and ineffective supervision of sales staff; significant weaknesses in reviewing whether investments are suitable for clients; no review of trades by branch managers; and inadequate disclosure of the fees associated with purchasing scholarship plans.

In some instances, fees to enroll in a fund were misrepresented, leading clients to believe that the potential for loss was nil, the report says. The report also says there were many instances of misleading marketing. These included: outdated information in pamphlets and brochures on the value of assets under management; products that were represented as “risk-free,” “fully protected” and over all as bearing no risk to clients; and saying the products had been endorsed by government agencies.

The OSC also found that many firms did not keep adequate books and records. Client statements of account were not sent out monthly and contained misleading information, it said. The statements also omitted relevant information such as investments made to date.

Another issue raised in the report was that CST and USC are private companies affiliated with non-profit foundations. This can lead to misleading marketing, the commission said.

Peter Lewis, a vice-president at CST Consultants, said the firm — the largest in the industry with nearly $2-billion in assets under management — is a for-profit company wholly owned by a non-profit entity. CST acts as a sales arm for the foundation, which receives all the profits, he said.

作者: WendyQC 时间: 2008-9-5 13:11
标题: 安省证券委员会整顿（团体）RESP销售市场(zt)
【 «大中报»2004年7月23日】上周末，安省证券委员会（Ontario Security Commission，简称OSC）发布了对注册教育基金行业进行的调查报告。同时公布了对此行业的领头RESP经销商Allianz Education Funds Inc.，CST Consultants Inc.，及USC Education Savings Plans Inc.停止注册新的销售办公室，停止注册新的产品推销员等限制条件，直到问题彻底解决为止。

OSC的报告列举了调查过程中所发现的一系列问题，这些问题并不涉及产品本身，很多是针对销售手段的。报告中列举最典型的问题就是RESP产品（这些产品是指根据小孩的年龄购买了某某个单位）推销商对客户的误导行为，包括：

　　——忽略向客户提供的产品回报率的前提条件；

　　——所计算的回报率方法不一致，只选择一段短期高回报率以代表长期回报率；

　　——预测回报率的估算基于高于近期利率的假设高利率；

　　——RESP产品被标榜为"无风险"，"有保障"，"政府保险"等；

　　——RESP产品说明书与其他宣传品的内容不符；

　　——RESP产品宣传书上不提政府提供补贴的400元上限，等等。

报告还列举了RESP产品推销员的不道德的推销行为，比如：

　　——推销员不具备足够的专业素质；

　　——推销员对客户的经济条件不加考虑，推销给客户的产品并不适用于客户，或客户根本无力承担；

　　——有时竟以客户的居住环境作为产品是否适于客户的衡量标准等等…

报告中列举的许多实例都与大中报投诉热线的众多读者投诉相符，但还有一些被投诉的推销员不道德的推销行为却未呈现于报告中，而这些不道德的行为都具备客户为少数族裔的特征，比如，客户为新移民，对加拿大的法律及金融产品了解甚少，英语不是他们的第一语言等等。针对这些问题，我电话采访了OSC媒体联系部的经理Eric Pelletier先生。

Eric告诉我，在OSC所做的调查过程中，OSC官员假装客户，观察推销员的推销行为。调查过程中的确发现推销员不能将产品清楚明确地向客户解释清楚，当然，如果客户的第一语言不是英语，可想而知要客户清楚地了解产品性能就更不可能了。

我立即向Eric指出，这不仅仅是了解产品的问题，更为严重的是推销员利用客户为新移民，不懂英语的特点，用客户的第一语言（比如中文），向客户口头介绍产品，把产品说得天花乱坠，如何如何之好，而产品说明书及合同又是英文的，客户看不懂，最后导致说明书和合同与推销员所讲完全不符，许多客户在签了合同后才发现上当。OSC在报告中列举了许多事例，也提出许多建议，但没一条建议是针对这一现象的，比如说，建议对不讲英语的中国人客户，将产品说明书用中文写出，以杜绝这一现象的发生。另外，如果客户要对推销员的行为投诉，如何进行。有无中文的热线接待员？还有，由于许多移民没有金融产品的知识背景，OSC有没有建议推销员在向客户推销产品前，首先要了解客户的知识背景，对产品缺乏了解的客户要提供一定的培训呢？

Eric回答说，OSC对RESP的确有中文的宣称材料，网址为：http://www.investored.ca/cn/library/pdf/RESP_chinese.pdf. 也有投诉电话的中文接待员，投诉电话是：416-593-8314。Eric说，OSC有讲广东话的接线员接听投诉电话，而讲国语的投诉者可向接线员说明要求国语服务。Eric说OSC非常欢迎任何人对有关金融产品销售方面的投诉，而且不必顾虑语言障碍。关于产品说明书，OSC虽没有语言方面的规定，但为避免我所提到的问题的发生，他建议对那些没有太多金融知识，英语又较为障碍的客户，一定不要轻易决定购买任何金融产品，对自己不懂的东西更要慎重，在决定购买前，要多听一听，多向你所信任的人了解，弄懂自己被推销的东西。最重要的一点，Eric强调说，客户的决定不应为推销员所左右，而买下自己不需要的东西，客户首先要考虑的是自己的需要，而有选择的购买自己需要的产品。推销员推销的东西很多，不是每项都为你所需，如果你经常忙于应付这些推销员，而不是根据你的需要去选择，就会买下错误的产品。

同时，Eric指出，OSC要求推销员在推销产品前一定要了解客户的现状，客户的经济收入和对金融产品的需求程度。OSC在调查中发现一些推销员完全忽视客户的经济现状，向低收入客户兜售高月费金融产品，使客户根本无法承担，而金融公司的审批部门对金融产品的批准过程又很松散，这无疑给客户造成了很大精神压力。针对这种情况，OSC在报告中要求公司审批部门加强对金融产品购买申请的监督审核过程，没有严格的审核手续，购买的产品得不到批准等等。

ERIC最后说，OSC的政策都是根据所调查的情况而制定的。OSC根据得到的反馈信息还会不断修改政策及增加新的条款，并且，对那些被考察的金融产品推销公司，如果发现他们的现状未得到进一步改进，OSC会迅速作出反映并采取强硬措施。因此他进一步强调，OSC希望所有讲各种语言的金融产品客户通过电话（416-593-8314）向OSC反映对产品推销购买过程中的顾虑及不满，这才是金融产品市场得以健康发展的关键。

作者: QC20061130 时间: 2008-9-5 15:04
up up up

作者: zhouhui 时间: 2008-9-7 10:26
那些卖RESP的托们,不是要辩论么,去哪里了?
等着这个帖子沉下去,然后再开一个新的帖子,再贴些彭先生王先生

作者: df2004 时间: 2008-9-8 00:17
标题: upuppupup
upuppupup

作者: WendyQC 时间: 2008-9-9 13:13
看看我们这里Group Plan代理的素质

请问大家都是怎么摆脱RESP代理的骚扰的?
http://www.sinoquebec.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=575531

这就是当初Sun Life刘大侠说的辛勤的蜜蜂

欢迎光临蒙城华人网 (https://www.sinoquebec.com/)