Stanlib Unit Trusts Anyone?

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Stanlib Unit Trusts Anyone? Update on pg2

So I have about R220k invested in the Income Fund at Stanlib.

Recently logged in to check how its growing if at all, and discovered about R11k has been taken out and moved to another fund called the STANLIB Income ABIL Retention Fund.

This was done without my knowledge or consent. Sent then an email to request an explanation. No response after 24 hours. So I called them up. They say they took the money out of there due to African Bank's problems as that is the amount invested with African Bank, and basically they have to see how the process with African Bank ends up and only then I MIGHT get the money back. Otherwise I am R11k out of pocket.

I ask him why they haven't so much as sent an email to inform clients, and his response it they are still busy with it. And I see the transaction to take money out of my account was done on the 18th of this month. So they still busy drafting an e-mail for 10 days after just deciding to take money out of a clients account??? Am I wrong for being a little worried about this practice??

Anybody else have money "taken out" of their unit trusts for "safe keeping" until the African Bank thing is over?
 
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I had money taken out from my Cadiz Money Market fund as well but was communicated to very quickly (on the same day) in an e-mail explaining why it happened and how they calculated the percentage based on the fund's exposure to African Bank.

I also know that Bruce Whitfield was talking about it the one evening on 702 but I agree that Stanlib should have bothered to inform its clients like Cadiz did.
 
Hey ambroseg1, I just checked my investments with them and they did the exact same. Not cool, I also have received no communication.

Well goodby stalib me thinks!
 
Odd... Logged into my Stanlib profile and I have 100% in "STANLIB Value Fund A". ABIL is in the top ten holdings at 4.99%, I don't have any "ABIL Retention Fund" in my portfolio now. Oddly the "portfolio performance" graph looks fine but the "Contributions vs market value" graph has a chunk taken out of it recently (last month or so).
 
hornbill81 said:
Hey ambroseg1, I just checked my investments with them and they did the exact same. Not cool, I also have received no communication.

Well goodby stalib me thinks!
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Going to withdraw the whole lot and stick it in my home loan like I should've done from the start.
 
Just come from Standard Bank. Withdrew everything I could. R11k still sitting there. Apparently it will be held for 3 months before I know IF I can get it back or lose it all.

Lesson learnt :-(
 
Stanlib should have sent an email explaining things but its not like they're taking your money. ABIL instruments can not be traded at the moment, not that you would want that anyway. It's in your best interest to leave them invested to see if they gain some value back.

I'm assuming the interest rate on your home loan is higher than you earn in a conservative fund like the Stanlib Income Fund so it's a good idea to pay that off.
 
vash87 said:
Stanlib should have sent an email explaining things but its not like they're taking your money. ABIL instruments can not be traded at the moment, not that you would want that anyway. It's in your best interest to leave them invested to see if they gain some value back.

I'm assuming the interest rate on your home loan is higher than you earn in a conservative fund like the Stanlib Income Fund so it's a good idea to pay that off.
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Leave money invested with business who doesn't think it necessary to inform clients when they stand to lose a substantial amount of money. Worst advice ever.

And yes, home loan interest rate, is Prime. Interest rate from unit trust is between 6 and 7%.

And I am sorry to disagree again...but they are taking my money. As yesterday I couldn't withdraw it. Which by my definition means its taken. Irrespective whether there is the possibility of me getting it back 3 months from now. For now I consider it taken.
 
ambroseg1 said:
Just come from Standard Bank. Withdrew everything I could. R11k still sitting there. Apparently it will be held for 3 months before I know IF I can get it back or lose it all.

Lesson learnt :-(
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baastids. they messed up but now to cover their losses they taking it out of the clients investment accounts. shouldn't the growth of the money just be smaller? why they touching the investors capital? when the fund has a good year/month/whatever they declare the bonus rate and apply this backdated for the past year. after this ABIL mess wont the declared rate just be smaller?
 
akescpt said:
shouldn't the growth of the money just be smaller? why they touching the investors capital?
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This ^ is what I am wondering too. Especially after being told, by the "financial advisor" that I will never ever lose my initial capital investment with this fund.
 
ambroseg1 said:
This ^ is what I am wondering too. Especially after being told, by the "financial advisor" that I will never ever lose my initial capital investment with this fund.
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Do you have this in writing? You could hold them accountable to it.

I'm also a bit confused about the ABIL situation. Normally when I see something called an "Income Fund", I think of bonds and low-risk assets (unless those are "fixed income" at Stanlib). I assume the client cash sitting with ABIL must have been for some type of loan structure then?

They say they took the money out of there due to African Bank's problems as that is the amount invested with African Bank, and basically they have to see how the process with African Bank ends up and only then I MIGHT get the money back. Otherwise I am R11k out of pocket.
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This situation oddly reminds me of a movie I once watched, where in the 2008 crisis, the "financial advisors"/salesmen were peddling the exotic financial products based on the high-risk homeloans onto their clients.

Although this is definitely nothing like that scenario in size/scale/value, they do seem to be "wiping their hands clean" by dumping their risky positions onto the client completely.

11/220 = 5% (ties to what rorz0r said). Sounds like they're deleveraging at your expense.

Ehh, bankers... :confused:
 
72 hours after my initial request for info regarding my missing money and I got this email

Thank you for contacting STANLIB.

Please accept our apology for the delayed communication.

While the investment community always says that investments can go down as well as up, we know you entrusted us with your funds to make them grow. The collapse of African Bank has created unforeseen losses for some of our investors and anxiety for all. For this we would like to apologise as we do not like to let our clients down and will do all we can to learn from this situation.

Furthermore, because the ABIL debt has become a non-performing asset i.e. not paying interest as it is not trading and is impossible to sell.

Due to this, we created retention funds. That means that we switched the Abil debt 5.47% out of the funds and put it into side funds that are still owned by investors, but cannot not be sold.

As we receive any cash flows from the ABIL investments in the form of interest or capital, we will return that to investors, however, its unclear what the value of interest will be.

The Abil debt will continue to accrue interest, that will be paid at a later stage, but it's unclear what the value of that interest will be.

I have attached formal documentation that has been sent out to clients

STANLIB Online is a self service portal that allows you to actively view and manage your investments. For example: As a STANLIB client you can view investment details, view statements, generate investment graphs and perform many other functions. Please visit www.stanlib.com for more information and to register.

Have any of your details changed or have you recently moved? Please advise STANLIB so that we may always keep in contact with you.

Should there be any further enquiries, please feel free to contact us via returned e-mail or call our Contact Centre on 0860 123 003 or +27 11 448 6000.

They also attached a letter to the email dated 29 August 2014 basically saying the same thing. So glad my money was paid out today. Never again.
 
To be honest with this whole ABIL mess I expected to receive some communication from my various investment providers, even if only to confirm 0 exposure. I've heard sweet f'all from anyone.
 
rorz0r said:
To be honest with this whole ABIL mess I expected to receive some communication from my various investment providers, even if only to confirm 0 exposure. I've heard sweet f'all from anyone.
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So its not just Stanlib that think it not important to inform clients when they stand to lose a big chunk of their money?
 
I guess not... I would have thought everyone providing investments would have rushed to inform their clients of the exact amount of exposure they had in their portfolios and update on any actions taken/planned.
 
I have some money in SATRIX RAFi and if I hadn't actually, actively searched the net about its position on ABIL, I would not have known a thing
 
I've got money in the Momentum money market. I see they had taken out 0.89% for the Abil retention fund. I didn't get any letter stating anything and I only get a statement when I deposit the funds. I've made it back in interest but I'm really disappointed. Think I'll withdraw the funds.
 
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