Friends Provident International Reviews 261

I am scared. I read the comments of other clients and I am apprehensive that the investment made for a long time falls into a disappointment. I hope I'm wrong and that at the end of the period everything ends with benefits.

Very bad service and irresponsible respresenative that no one contact me for my funding

Whilst I don't have a fortune invested with FPI (thankfully), I have made a negative return of over 30% over the course of 10 years. Most of those losses were a few years back. My policy value has barely moved at all in the last couple of years. Surrendering the policy would strip about 20% of the remaining value, so I am just leaving the money there until maturity.

Totally waste money! Just keep asking you to invest more but no return at all. I invest 100k HKD 10 years ago and now only less than half remain. Not expect to see any remain after 15 years...

It's good to have a mobile applications rather than logining to their website.

Experience is below average. Not much information on products. It is good to benchmark to reports from Fidelity, Vanguard, etc. The reports do meet minimum standard but needs much improvement.

Part of the problem is the Financial Advisor is actually the one giving the advice and FPI is more like a custodian. Website needs to be more informative about alternative products available, reviews, etc.

The FPI has to decide whether the model of Independent Financial Advisor - Passive Custodian is a good model of its business. My own experience is it is better to deal with Vanguard, Fidelity, HSBC and others directly which offers a fuller service and if you chose Index Funds and ETFs, the costs are much lower. At least there is a lot more information on their websites about the products on offer and the Reports on my own portfolio are pretty good.

The rating so far on the responses is 2 star and I think it is a fair and objective rating. Things could improve if the services being offered and the business model are explained and communicated better. As already mentioned, Benchmarking against others will be a very good thing.

Avoid this company like COVID-19. The products carry huge long-term multi-layer fees, and the sale is packaged in a way that camouflages those fees. The investment performance of the portfolio is dismal, made worse by the high (and obscure) charges. The company does not invest your money in 3rd party mutual funds etc, it invests your money in its own internal "mirror funds", which in turn carry further charges. The "investment advisor" who sells you the product will offer you no financial advice (eg reviewing your FP portfolio) after he/she has sold you the product. Ideally make your own direct investments (such as in Mutual Funds or ETFs) in the market - a bit of research will find you many excellent direct funds that will match your risk profile and pocket. If you cannot or will not do that - maybe for tax reasons - then try a simple investment bond (or similar). Approach the financial houses direct or via your bank.

Unhelpful, constantly changing staff, copy responses from other emails and cannot be bothered to change font, very poor management of fund providers. Indifferent managers.

don't ever use FPI as their service is super duper slow resulting in few thousands dollars difference by the time I managed to withdraw my funds. I withdraw my funds online via their website and provided all necessary documents required but they still requested for the same documents via email and took days/weeks to finally get it done.

Terrible Terrible Terrible service. I will never ever invest with FPI again. Totally not recommended. I'm not the only one with such experience.

I don’t have a representative. It has been imposible to have one and get answer on my questions.
It’s imposible to get information by mail and worst on the portal.
I am an international life insurance costumer and i stop saving every month because I don’t know anything about the account.

13 years with FP, no issue with FP. However, I've a right mix bag of brokers/advisors over the years, now happier by cutting the middle man out and monitoring and managing my funds for myself.

Wouldn’t use them again. Almost zero customer interaction. I have been investing a fixed amount over a long period of time and since my initial investment there has been no advice or input into my portfolio, what changes I should make, etc. To be fair I think more of the issue is with the intermediary I used (St James Place who are truly terrible) but neither would I recommend FP.

I've lost quite a lot of money since investing in FPI. It is not all down to FP, but I think the charges are part of it. If I could take my money out without penalty at this point and put it in a fund with lower fees I would do that.

Update payment details by fax? Seriously?

But that’s what you have to do when the payment portal is down as it was last week.

Or you can wait a week and try again like I did.

In an age where online payments are daily for most you are far behind on ease of use.

I have a life insurance policy with you. My wife also does. We pay monthly by credit card. My card expired and it has taken over two months to get a new direct debit working. You sent me a payment link which didn't work. You then asked me to fax a DD form to you. Problem is I don't know anyone with a fax machine - it is 2021, after all. In the end I had to courier you a signed DD form. And I've not heard a peep for two weeks...until yesterday when you took one monthly payment, rather than the usual two. I think I have done what I can to pay you, so it's over to you now. I honestly have to say I feel like you just don't care about your customers. For what we have paid you over the years it's probably not unreasonable to expect a little more customer care, surely? I've given up, life's just too short.
I really hope to hear from you.
Some time...

I am a international member and I like Friends Provident

I’ve asked my representative to give me feedback on my policy if I am unable to carry on with it due to unemployment!Ive been waiting since the 21July and no word!What happens to money have been paying since 2016?How long do I wait?

Many years ago while living in Beijing, I was approached as a well known business owner to invest using FP. I was told that I just had to leave my money in for 2 years. I put in a lot over that period well a lot for me. Years and years went by and I needed to access my money. I was next to impossible to communicate well with FP. and after a decade or more I discovered when I tried to get my money that it was not an investment at all but Life Insurance? and that I could not get my money. I lost thousands with FP

I have been trying to withdraw par of my money, without penalties, and the process has been slow. I understand to validate the person is asking for the money is you.. and don’t give it to somebody else. I have provided the information required, even I went to an official department in municipality in the city where I live to validate my identity and provided sufficient evidence is me but I still waiting. Perhaps they could implement a better system to validate the identity of the policy holder thus expedite this process.

My interaction was to advise regarding closure of premium payments.
I would have continued paying premiums beyond the minimum period of 5 years had Friends been reliable and efficient. Please refer to my multiple exchanges over the past few years with your office, I will skip the unpleasant exchanges but I will NOT recommend FPI to anyone. FPI may be good in returns of your investment but your operations and staff need to improve on their performance.