I think it is to do with their brains damage by NS.
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>> ASIAONE / BUSINESS / NEWS / MY MONEY / STORY
Tue, Oct 14, 2008
The New Paper
$250k down the drain
THE injustice that she felt was so strong, she was trembling as she spoke.
Last year, her parents, both retirees, had invested $250,000 in three structured products.
The life savings of her father, 62, a former civil servant, and her mother, 60, a housewife, were wiped out when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.
Over eight months, her father had put $150,000 in three structured products sold by a bank.
The long-time bank customer had first invested $50,000 in the Pinnacle Notes Series5B in March last year.
Two months after that, he made another $50,000 investment, this time in the Jubilee Notes Series3.
Last November, he put a further $50,000 of his life savings into another Pinnacle Notes product, the Series9.
Her mother had also invested $50,000 each in the Pinnacle Notes5B series and the Jubilee Notes Series3.
Their daughter, who wanted to be known only as Ms Koh, said: 'My parents still do not believe that their investments have been reduced to zero because they were told by the bank relationship manager that only their returns have been affected.'
She was at an event organised by former NTUC Income boss Tan Kin Lian at Hong Lim Park yesterday.
Whipping out a document released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore from her paper bag, Ms Koh said: 'It was written in black and white on this document that if a credit event happened, they (her parents) would still be able to get back their principal.
'My parents thought that the worst that could happen would be that they would lose their 5 per cent interest.'
Ms Koh had approached The New Paper on Sunday at the Speakers' Corner, where investors seeking recourse had gathered.
Frustrated after hearing how one of the speakers, Mr Leong Sze Hian, cautioned against putting all of one's eggs in the same basket, she said: 'My parents were told that these products were different from each other. They were told that these products were all different baskets.'
Now, Ms Koh is just trying to break the news gently to her parents and trying to recover as much of their investment as she can.
As the 'most highly educated' of three children, Ms Koh, an IT executive, is now going to hire a lawyer to prepare an affidavit for her parents so that, with other such investors, she can get the bank to take her complaint more seriously.
She had stayed up till 3.30am the previous night to prepare a letter of complaint she was going to send to the CEO of the bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The letter, which she showed The New Paper on Sunday, had details of how her parents ended up investing with the bank and included questions on why bank employees were allowed to 'mis-sell' the products.
She said: 'I do not blame the person who sold these products to my parents. It is the person who designed the product that is out to bluff laymen like us.
'How could they have not told us that we could have lost 100 per cent of our investment? My parents had bought the products thinking that their exposure was only 5 per cent at the most. What kind of (a) deal is this? You stand to gain only 5 per cent, but you could lose 100 per cent.
'My parents had jumped into the swimming pool thinking that the water would only come up to their feet. Now, it seems like there is a black hole in the swimming pool that is sucking everyone in and drowning them.'
This article was first published in The New Paper on October 12, 2008.
================
>> ASIAONE / BUSINESS / NEWS / MY MONEY / STORY
Tue, Oct 14, 2008
The New Paper
$250k down the drain
THE injustice that she felt was so strong, she was trembling as she spoke.
Last year, her parents, both retirees, had invested $250,000 in three structured products.
The life savings of her father, 62, a former civil servant, and her mother, 60, a housewife, were wiped out when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.
Over eight months, her father had put $150,000 in three structured products sold by a bank.
The long-time bank customer had first invested $50,000 in the Pinnacle Notes Series5B in March last year.
Two months after that, he made another $50,000 investment, this time in the Jubilee Notes Series3.
Last November, he put a further $50,000 of his life savings into another Pinnacle Notes product, the Series9.
Her mother had also invested $50,000 each in the Pinnacle Notes5B series and the Jubilee Notes Series3.
Their daughter, who wanted to be known only as Ms Koh, said: 'My parents still do not believe that their investments have been reduced to zero because they were told by the bank relationship manager that only their returns have been affected.'
She was at an event organised by former NTUC Income boss Tan Kin Lian at Hong Lim Park yesterday.
Whipping out a document released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore from her paper bag, Ms Koh said: 'It was written in black and white on this document that if a credit event happened, they (her parents) would still be able to get back their principal.
'My parents thought that the worst that could happen would be that they would lose their 5 per cent interest.'
Ms Koh had approached The New Paper on Sunday at the Speakers' Corner, where investors seeking recourse had gathered.
Frustrated after hearing how one of the speakers, Mr Leong Sze Hian, cautioned against putting all of one's eggs in the same basket, she said: 'My parents were told that these products were different from each other. They were told that these products were all different baskets.'
Now, Ms Koh is just trying to break the news gently to her parents and trying to recover as much of their investment as she can.
As the 'most highly educated' of three children, Ms Koh, an IT executive, is now going to hire a lawyer to prepare an affidavit for her parents so that, with other such investors, she can get the bank to take her complaint more seriously.
She had stayed up till 3.30am the previous night to prepare a letter of complaint she was going to send to the CEO of the bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The letter, which she showed The New Paper on Sunday, had details of how her parents ended up investing with the bank and included questions on why bank employees were allowed to 'mis-sell' the products.
She said: 'I do not blame the person who sold these products to my parents. It is the person who designed the product that is out to bluff laymen like us.
'How could they have not told us that we could have lost 100 per cent of our investment? My parents had bought the products thinking that their exposure was only 5 per cent at the most. What kind of (a) deal is this? You stand to gain only 5 per cent, but you could lose 100 per cent.
'My parents had jumped into the swimming pool thinking that the water would only come up to their feet. Now, it seems like there is a black hole in the swimming pool that is sucking everyone in and drowning them.'
This article was first published in The New Paper on October 12, 2008.
