Holding Int puts clients in their place…

It’s somewhat ironic that two organisations linked by a purchase could operate in such different ways when it comes to communicating with their clients. I’m talking about the now defunct Vanfunds which was swallowed up by HoldingInt in the latter part of 2009.

Vanfunds had a highly professional website that offered many services and was easy to use. They provided literature that explained their investments and also offered some very useful security features. Clients were allocated an account manager and you could rely on questions being answered quickly. If only HoldingInt treated clients in such a way.

A recent news item on the HoldingInt site effectively told Vanfunds clients that their enquiries were interrupting what HoldingInt were doing and would not be answered. In effect being told to go away and wait until HoldingInt decide to tell clients what is going on.

So, not having any information about when we will learn more about what has happened to our money it really does feel that we are second class citizens and not that  important to the world of HoldingInt. It  shouldn’t come as any surprise that an email I sent some months ago now has still not been answered.

HoldingInt is Holding out to VanFund members…

At the end of November Vanfunds notified their members that they had made the decision to sell to HoldingInt based in Hong Kong. The message was that this would ensure members continued to receive a premier service and be part of a major financial institution.

To say this came as something of a shock to existing VanFund members would be understating things hugely. There was no prior indication and we were not given any option in the matter, our funds were transferred immediately.

So, what’s happened since then? Well as far as I can tell nothing of any importance to VanFund members. No communication whatsoever and no timeline for when we will be able to access our funds.

In an effort to find out what the plans are I contacted HoldingInt by email on 22 December. As yet I’ve not had a reply but given the holidays I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt until early next week before making any further enquiry.

In my email I made the point that online investors are very sensitive to the level and frequency of communication they receive and wanted HoldingInt to provide some indication of what news we would get and when.

To me the fact that nothing has been communicated for nearly a month is not very professional and at the time made the statement that the VanFunds website should have been retained until the transition is complete.

Hopefully 2010 will bring greater clarity and openness from HoldingInt but we need to see some positive move in this direction very soon.

Vanfunds get swallowed up and leave investors high and dry…

You know that feeling you get when things are going just too well? There is bound to be something that happens to knock you off balance, well that’s what has happened with Vanfunds. They have been bought out by a company in Hong Kong.

The announcement was made in a newsletter from Vanfunds at the end of last week. The new owner is Holding Investors and Traders S.A (Hololding Int.).

Now I’m not suggesting that the new owner is any way unsuitable or unable to provide as good or even a better service that Vanfunds but I am disappointed that investors have effectively been cut off from their accounts as a result of this buyout. Without any prior warning we are told that our accounts will be transferred to the new company.

I understand that confidentiality issues arise when deals like this are done but I would have been happier if the Vanfunds website was still available and an orderly transition take place. As it is we are now completely in the hands of Holding Int. and there is no real clarity as to when the new platform will be available.

In part mitigation of this disruption members have been promised an additional 3.5% interest to be paid but it is not clear whether this is a one-off payment or a longer term deal.

When I looked at the Holding Int. website it was clear that there is still a lot of work to do to make it suitable for administering our accounts. And that’s another niggle because the Vanfunds website was in my opinion probably the most user friendly online investing website out there.

The Vanfunds support staff were not part of the deal so they are no longer available to help with questions and these will now be handled by staff at Holding Int.

Let’s hope that the massive of amount of work which is clearly needed to be done is given a high priority so that we can access our accounts sooner rather than later.

If things go well there is the opportunity to access a commodity fund investment from Holding Int. but details of this are not yet available.