I will keep this short in so far as possible
I had bought shares my company through an internal scheme – my last purchase was several years ago.
This was administered through Mercer. I received any dividend vouchers from them etc. There were always fairly efficient.
Last year out of the blue I received a letter from Dolmen Stockbrokers saying welcome to your new account etc. It did not refer to what shares or assets I was supposed to have with them. I never opened an account with them. I ignored it for too reasons 1) work pressure but 2) mainly because I though it must be a complete mistake and even suspected it may be a scam.
Yesterday I received a contract note from Dolmen stating that some of my company shares were sold to cover fees owed to Dolmen for administering the account. Its nearly €200 – not to be sniffed at.
I rang Dolmen. It seems that Mercer transferred my account to them. My ‘agreement’ was taken when I did not respond to a letter from Mercer stating they were doing this. The ‘default’ option on this letter was apparently that I agreed to the transfer. I lodged a complaint on the following grounds:
1. I never agreed to transfer shares over to Dolmen. I disagree that because I did not reply to a letter that this gives them a right to do this.
2. Fees have been taken from my ‘account’ with Dolmen, again I never signed up to this.
I rang Mercer. Got a polite PFO from them – I asked for an address so that I may write a letter of complaint to them which I will do.
During the call with Dolmen the agent actually said to me that this way of switching accounts has been stopped by the Financial Regulator in the past year. To me this indicates the practice is unsound and that there should be a procedure to deal with anyone who this has happened to. Dolmen are to call me back.
There are also data protection issues here and AML issues too from what I can see.
I feel that my fees should be refunded and that I can sell out the rest of my shares, as otherwise the account will just be run down with charges.
Has this happened to anyone? If so how did you deal with it and what was the result? I’m actually a little stunned that this was done.
Thanks
I had bought shares my company through an internal scheme – my last purchase was several years ago.
This was administered through Mercer. I received any dividend vouchers from them etc. There were always fairly efficient.
Last year out of the blue I received a letter from Dolmen Stockbrokers saying welcome to your new account etc. It did not refer to what shares or assets I was supposed to have with them. I never opened an account with them. I ignored it for too reasons 1) work pressure but 2) mainly because I though it must be a complete mistake and even suspected it may be a scam.
Yesterday I received a contract note from Dolmen stating that some of my company shares were sold to cover fees owed to Dolmen for administering the account. Its nearly €200 – not to be sniffed at.
I rang Dolmen. It seems that Mercer transferred my account to them. My ‘agreement’ was taken when I did not respond to a letter from Mercer stating they were doing this. The ‘default’ option on this letter was apparently that I agreed to the transfer. I lodged a complaint on the following grounds:
1. I never agreed to transfer shares over to Dolmen. I disagree that because I did not reply to a letter that this gives them a right to do this.
2. Fees have been taken from my ‘account’ with Dolmen, again I never signed up to this.
I rang Mercer. Got a polite PFO from them – I asked for an address so that I may write a letter of complaint to them which I will do.
During the call with Dolmen the agent actually said to me that this way of switching accounts has been stopped by the Financial Regulator in the past year. To me this indicates the practice is unsound and that there should be a procedure to deal with anyone who this has happened to. Dolmen are to call me back.
There are also data protection issues here and AML issues too from what I can see.
I feel that my fees should be refunded and that I can sell out the rest of my shares, as otherwise the account will just be run down with charges.
Has this happened to anyone? If so how did you deal with it and what was the result? I’m actually a little stunned that this was done.
Thanks
