JAMES CONEY: It's a miracle - all of my investment funds are up this year

By James Coney for the Daily Mail
Published: 00:00 GMT, 24 December 2014 | Updated: 09:26 GMT, 24 December 2014
While Mrs C is busy wrapping presents and the Coney Juniors are pulling down the decorations (and often the tree), I try to sneak away from the ensuing chaos and have a look at how my investments have performed. What a jolly soul I am.
Anyway, there was at least a minor Christmas miracle in this annual moment of reflection: all of my funds were up over the year. It’s a considerable improvement on this time last year, and just goes to highlight what a successful time this has been for most mainstream investments.
Among the funds I invest in is Invesco Perpetual High Income — it is a stalwart for many savers, and even after star manager Neil Woodford left I stuck with it. This is up 11 per cent this year, and has grown every year for the past five: that’s what I call a solid performer.

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Investments: Among the funds I invest in is Invesco Perpetual High Income, which is up 11 per cent this year, says James Coney
I’m more surprised at the results from two more risky funds I’ve got: Aberdeen Emerging Markets Equity and First State Asia Pacific Leaders.
The former is a nerve-jangling investment to hold. Massively up one year, then down heavily the next. This year it rose 3 per cent. The manager has got a lot of the cash in Brazil and its economy has been slow.
And 16 per cent of it is in China, which despite rumours of a demise is still plodding along with good annual growth and I suspect is holding up the performance of this fund.
I’ve held the First State fund for a while and it is a roller-coaster, yet somehow, it’s delivered almost 20 per cent this year — which by any marker is pretty good, as well as beating its rivals by about 10 per cent.
This fund has been propped up by India, where about a quarter of the money has been invested.
Though it can be nerve-racking, this is a fund I still regularly save in to — which in some way helps iron out the big bumps in performance.
Another one I like is Threadneedle European Select. I bought this after meeting the fund’s very convincing manager and falling for what he was trying to achieve.
It buys good value European companies, such as L’Oreal, Swedish bank Handelsbanken, Unilever, Nestle, which it believes have products or business models that will grow no matter what the economies do.
So what, if any, was the rotten egg among these marvellous souffles? BlackRock Gold & General — a fund which invests in gold and mining companies. It was actually up 3 per cent this year, but that followed catastrophic falls over the past three years.
I can’t quite bring myself to sell up, even though I’m conscious that this would be the right thing to do.
The problem is that this fund is down more than 50 per cent since I first bought it. That means it now has to grow by more than 100 per cent to get me back where it started. Gulp!
What a look at my investments doesn’t reveal is the big call I made at the start of the year. That was to ditch the Neptune Russia & Greater Russia fund at a loss. This decision was prompted by Russia’s conflict with the Ukraine.
Since then, things have gone from bad to worse —– down 41 per cent over the year, a bigger fall than in each of the previous two years. And with the drop in the oil price, things don’t look set to improve soon. Next year promises to be a major one for investment companies, as the new pension reforms could create a generation of self-investors.
Stock markets will rise and fall. There’s always an element of luck and skill with picking funds.
But we’ll be there to hold your hand every step of the way and help you make the right decisions for your life savings.

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JAMES CONEY: The three obvious tax grabs you could face after the election

By James Coney for the Daily Mail
Published: 00:39 GMT, 10 December 2014 | Updated: 09:28 GMT, 10 December 2014
Two things struck me while watching Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement last week.
One was that six or seven years (depending on your starting point) after the banking crisis began, we have a Chancellor still fighting the fires of the mess that was left behind.
It’s almost impossible to comprehend the sums the nation owed — the number of zeros are just too great — but if anything shows the scale of the trouble the economy was in, it is that, even after all the cuts and the tax hikes, we are still nowhere near out of the woods.

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Chancellor George Osborne has revealed new reforms during his Autumn Statement last week
The second was how much isn’t being said — not just by Mr Osborne, but by any political side.
They all know that, after May, there are more painful decisions to be made — but for fear of losing the General Election, no one is brave enough to talk about them.
For financial aficionados, there are three obvious taxes that could be — and probably will be — targeted.
The first is National Insurance and, in particular, the contributions of the self-employed.
Currently, employed workers pay 12 per cent on income between roughly £8,000 and £42,000 and 2 per cent on every £1 earned above this. Their employers pay 13.8 per cent.
So, for every employed worker in the country, the state can get as much as 25.8 per cent for every £1 they earn.
But the self-employed pay a flat rate of £2.75 a week, then 9 per cent and 2 per cent (the earnings bands are roughly the same as for the employed). This disparity came about because the self-employed never had a chance to claim the state second pension.
But from 2016 no one will earn an entitlement to this, so the argument for substantially lower contributions goes out the window.
It may be fairer to bring these taxes into parity — but, politically, it is a nightmare and certainly not one you want to talk about before an election.
Pensions minister Steve Webb (a Lib Dem) advocates a 25 per cent tax relief (you put in 75p to get £1 in your pension) for all workers
Next up for grabs is tax relief on pension contributions for higher-rate taxpayers. When a basic-rate taxpayer puts £1 into a pension, it costs them 80p and the Government tops up the rest.
But for higher-rate payers, they only need put in 60p. The Liberal Democrats and Labour seem to agree that this is too generous — and I suspect the Tories also see this as unsustainable.
Also, tens of thousands of higher-rate payers never claim the extra tax relief they are owed, while hundreds of thousands more are forced through self-assessment to claim it. It’s unwieldy.
Pensions minister Steve Webb (a Lib Dem) advocates a 25 per cent tax relief (you put in 75p to get £1 in your pension) for all workers. It may not be a vote-winner among the middle classes, but it would save the economy several billion pounds a year.
And, finally, there is VAT. Labour is already pointing the finger at the Tories, claiming they plan to hike it — and it’s not hard to see why.
A 1p hike in VAT adds a whopping £5billion to the economy, but just 83p to something that already costs £100. It’s largely intangible and, of course, targets consumption.
For a party that can’t stomach putting up VAT to 21p or 22p, there is the possibility of an increase in VAT for high-value items, say luxury foods, Lamborghinis and designer goods (you could call it a handbag tax), setting them at a rate of 25 per cent.
All the fiddling round the edges has been done. No matter what any party says, whoever gets in next May is going to be looking very seriously at some uncomfortable decisions.
Passports please
I first heard about the notion of a Pensions Passport at a dinner with some MPs and insurance bosses 18 months ago.
One of the two men behind the idea raised it as part of a solution to the problem of people failing to shop around for the right pension income.savings
It was quickly glossed over. The following morning, I asked him for more detail and he described how the passport had been put to the Association of British Insurers a year earlier, but these firms had barely considered it before rejecting the idea. And that is how far the idea had got.
But it’s also where we took up the fight. Long before other newspapers and consumer groups were raising concerns about annuities, or the Chancellor made his major reforms, Money Mail was there, fighting your corner.
And now we can reveal that, as part of a radical overhaul of pensions rules, savers should be given a passport. This will help push everyone in retirement to shop around for the best income — and, crucially, spell an end to dreadful wake-up packs issued by insurers.
A simple mess
A marvellous letter arrives from a Money Mail reader.
They enclose a booklet which they had recently received from the NatWest bank. It is entitled ‘Fairer. Simpler. Clearer’ and, over 22 pages, outlines the changes to some savings accounts.
It was accompanied, the reader explains, by a second booklet outlining the terms and conditions of these savings accounts. It is 24 pages long, but is printed in the tiniest size of type — a good way smaller than the one you are reading now.
The reader points out: ‘To read this necessitates the strongest lens available from Specsavers, and only then with the greatest of difficulty.
‘If as stated, this is fairer, simpler and clearer, I think they must have in mind someone with the intelligence of Einstein or Stephen Hawking. I wonder how much this gobbledegook has cost in time, printing, preparation, postage, etc, and how many people have taken the time to read, remember and fully understand its contents.’
Well said. Frankly, it is unnecessary for something like a savings account to have so much small print. Banks realise you don’t read it — so I don’t know why they persist.
It’s only when we get through these mountains of small print that banks can really declare themselves to be simpler.

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JAMES CONEY: Crooks making fortune out of stolen mobile phone handsets - not from selling them on, but by calling premium rate lines

By James Coney for the Daily Mail
Published: 01:08 GMT, 19 November 2014 | Updated: 09:48 GMT, 19 November 2014

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Hit hard: Victims are walloped with massive bills
When I was younger, I lived in Barcelona. It was before the rise in budget airlines when this magnificent city became a destination for stag dos and hen weekends.
It was still on the tourist trail, though — and pickpockets were rife.
One evening, I had my mobile phone swiped. I quickly noticed it was gone and cancelled it before any calls were made on it. (I say ‘I cancelled it’, but actually, like many 20-somethings facing a similar predicament in the middle of the night, I called home. Thanks again, Mum! And you, Dad!)
In the years since, many friends have visited the city — and routinely they come back and say they, too, have had their phone pinched.
Largely, they’ve just shrugged it off and claimed on their travel insurance.
In more recent years, though, as tourism in Barcelona really boomed, their tales have got worse, with many having to pick up mobile phone bills totalling hundreds of pounds.
On examination of the bills, they discovered that the phone thieves had made calls to India, Nigeria and other African states. It baffled me as to how the crooks could run up the bills so quickly after the theft.
Were they selling on the handsets to people with relatives in the country?
As our investigation lays bare, these calls are actually being made to premium rate numbers set up to allow criminals to make a packet.
And the national phone companies, the phone line sellers, the crooks and even the mobile operators all appear to be willing participants in allowing the victims to be walloped with massive bills.
Barcelona is a hotspot for mobile phone pickpockets, but this type of crime is growing round the globe. It could happen to you in Barnsley, Basildon or Bournemouth.
So prevalent are mobile phones that the crooks don’t even really seem to want the handsets any more. They’re nothing compared to what can be made on premium rate lines. On December 3 last year, the then Culture Secretary Maria Miller put out a statement proudly announcing how bills would be capped at £50 when a mobile phone was lost or stolen.
We asked the Department for Culture, Media and Sport why this hasn’t happened — it says it will report back soon.
Meanwhile, pickpockets continue to make a fortune. So my advice is this: if you think your mobile is missing, contact your provider immediately. Don’t wait for it to turn up down the back of the sofa or in your other handbag.
You may think it’s locked or not worth much, but until you tell your provider you’ll be on the hook for calls which can run into thousands of pounds.
Twitters
The row over the new pensions rules is getting increasingly bitter. But rather than at Westminster or in round-table debates held by the insurance companies and trade bodies, much of the arguing seems to be done on social networking site Twitter.
Every day, there is a new bust-up between ordinary, so-called experts as they trade barbs in 140 characters. It is unhelpful and unseemly.
At a time when there is the need for experienced and knowledgeable people to have a sensible discussion about what is best for the consumer, instead we have petty point-scoring or vain attempts at flogging their own products. Read the exchanges and it is clear that, often, the only interest being thrown to the fore is their own. Most of the time, it’s just industry show-offs being know-it-alls.
But, increasingly, you have professionals ganging up on anyone who dares offer a contrary opinion — usually that of the consumer. In some cases, these public attempts to discredit and harangue are tantamount to bullying.
What happened to reasonable people picking up the phone or exchanging emails to make their point politely — and in private — rather than in a pithy soundbite that seems largely motivated by the need to show off?
If these people are representing the values and concerns of savers, they’ve got a funny way of going about enhancing their credibility and raising their profile.
The pensions revolution is a great opportunity to empower savers. But savers need protecting with sensible rules that put their interests at heart — not those of people with the most Twitter followers and the biggest egos.
Good riddance
One utterly joyful piece of news this week was hearing that Visa and Mastercard are looking to scrap those extra websites they make you use to confirm a purchase when online shopping.
Called Verified by Visa or Mastercard Securecode, they’re just pointless and annoying. If you forget your password, you can simply get round it by putting in your other personal details.
All I ask is, please don’t replace them with something equally as time-consuming and frustrating.

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JAMES CONEY: Regulator Ofgem slow to act on energy rogues

By James Coney for the Daily Mail
Published: 00:02 GMT, 17 September 2014 | Updated: 08:37 GMT, 17 September 2014
I can only imagine the stress of running a small business. Not only do you have to ensure you’re making a profit, fight off competition from bigger rivals and earn yourself  a living, but you’ve got the well-being of your employees to think about, too.

It must be all-consuming.

The anxiety and strain must grow still further when you move into  new premises.


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Targets: You do not become immune to con men just because you open a shop or other small business.
There are startlingly high business rates to pay as well as rent and the cost of refitting the store.

So it must almost be a relief to get a phone call from someone claiming to be an independent energy consultant who says they can cut your bill by thousands.

There are about 2,000 of these brokers in the UK — and though many are part of a trade association that has a voluntary code, many are unaccountable.

As a result, they can flog deals that not only aren’t the cheapest, but leave the customer tied into contracts they can’t escape.

When the customer complains, their case is routinely rejected.

On top of this, the broker can claim a commission, which rewards them for every unit of energy the business uses.

So, let’s go over that again: we’ve got an unregulated marketplace, vague terms and conditions, and vast commissions which keep being pocketed for doing absolutely nothing. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

There is a definite stigma against small businesses that complain about being signed up to bad deals.

Largely the view tends to be that, unlike ordinary consumers, business owners should know what they are doing. They should know the rules, scour contracts with a toothcomb and ask the right questions before signing up to a deal.

But run a small business in the UK today and you already have a mountain of red tape to cut through. It’s frankly staggering how little of that, though, is to protect the business owners themselves.

Small businesses are run by ordinary people. You don’t suddenly become immune to being fleeced by a sophisticated trick just because you open a hairdresser’s, an internet firm or a taxi business.

Typically, it is the energy firms  that make business owners susceptible to these tactics by charging sky-high tariffs to those who move into new premises.

No wonder firms are so desperate to find a cheaper deal. And without a broker it is nigh on impossible for a business to find out what the best tariff is.

Once again, energy regulator Ofgem has proved slow to act on a scandalous state of affairs that is only making the energy firms richer.

You may not guess it from his weekly letters page, but Tony Hazell is a bit of a technology nerd. So when he heard the new iPhone??6 was coming out, he knew he had to have one.

Object of desire: You'll pay up to £900 over two years to nab Apple's latest.
He was straight on the internet on Friday morning when it went on sale. Despite his promptness, it’ll be almost a month before it arrives.

That was the easy bit, though – because then he had to find the right tariff.

My word, what a palaver. Hunting out a cheap mobile contract these days is only for the truly dedicated. It’s also not for the poor.

Over two years, one of these contracts will likely set you back upwards of £900. It took Tony hours to plough through the offers from all the providers.

This exercise in shopping around merely highlights the importance of stores such as Phones 4U, which went into administration this week. There is now only really one shop on the High Street that will compare phone deals for you — that’s Carphone Warehouse.

The phone providers effectively caused the collapse of Phones 4U by stopping it from selling their deals. That’s because they want to sell them themselves from their own shops.

This trend threatens to make it enormously difficult for us to shop around for the right phone deal. You would have to visit them  all to find out what was the most expensive.

And with such a lot of money being spent on these tariffs, getting the wrong deal could prove to be a very expensive mistake.

Car-hire gripe
Without looking at the date I’d always be able to guess it was mid-September just by looking through Money Mail’s email basket. That’s because it’s the time when all the complaints about holiday car hire start flooding in.

Suddenly, odd payments are on your credit card bill. Or complaints you thought were straightforward have gone unanswered or have been rudely rejected.

The worst thing is many people shrug their shoulders and put the lost money down to an additional holiday cost.

That’s because they have nowhere to turn to get independent help. Isn’t it time this industry was brought to book?

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JAMES CONEY: It's time for regulator Ofgem and Energy Ombudsman to come down heavy on basic errors that are making customers' lives a misery

By James Coney for the Daily Mail
Published: 00:01 GMT, 22 October 2014 | Updated: 08:50 GMT, 22 October 2014

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Turn off: It’s time for Ofgem and the Energy Ombudsman to come down heavy on these basic errors that are making customers’ lives a misery
The case of Stuart Palmer is typical of the kind that regularly fills our postbag about energy firms.
All he wanted to do was switch provider. He did everything he was supposed to, trying to register his meter readings, and calling when he encountered a problem.
But somewhere along the line his supplier botched it. He was sent a £754 bill - which he didn’t owe - and despite protesting for months on end, was eventually hounded by debt collectors.
It took a year and our eventual involvement to clear up the mess.
They said sorry and gave him £100 compensation. Done and dusted?
Well, no! Frankly, that is not good enough. And it’s time for regulator Ofgem and the Energy Ombudsman to come down heavy on these basic errors that are making customers’ lives a misery. Imagine the stress and worry Mr Palmer suffered, aside from the effort and time he has wasted.
If a bank spent 12 months chasing you for a debt you didn’t owe they’d have to pay between £250 and £500 compensation. Energy firms should be no different.
The effect on banks of a tough regulator in the form of the Financial Conduct Authority, and a respected independent arbitrator in the Financial Ombudsman, has had a tangible impact on complaints levels. Ofgem should be an imposing rule-maker, too.
Instead, it acts like a bad parent: constantly threatening discipline but rarely following through. As a result, the energy firms are petulant teenagers knowing they’ll never be properly punished for their misconduct.
That we have letters where firms have bluntly refused to pay compensation following a ruling from the ombudsman shows how little respect they have for authority.
Ofgem has acted on mis-selling, and in August there was a fine for EDF Energy about service. The money for this £3 million fine went to vulnerable customers. That’s admirable, but still doesn’t tackle the issue of proper compensation for those who actually suffered because of this failure. Npower is also being investigated.
But in other areas where it has been involved, it actually seems to have made life worse for consumers.
The standing charge pricing structure we now have is penalising many poorer customers. Others are baffled by the new ‘simplified’ bills.
The new chief executive of Ofgem wrote to the firms in September to warn them about complaints handling.
What’s happened since? Call waiting times have gone up at a couple of firms. What else would you expect, though? Ofgem launched a customer charter that was supposed to improve service 14 months ago. And since then things have been worse than ever.
So now Ofgem needs to act. Customers out of pocket, wrongly billed, put on hold for months and left sleepless with worry need to have their compensation doubled — in many cases tripled.
Where its charter has been breached - and in the cases of Npower, First Utillity and Scottish Power I’d contest that has already happened - there need to be fines and a ban on taking on new customers until the old ones are being properly served.
And the Energy Ombudsman needs to find some backbone and do its job in protecting consumers.
Broken bond
That the Government’s long-awaited Pensioner Bond does not pay monthly interest will prove a terrible blow for older savers.
When the Chancellor unveiled this deal in the Budget, it was to return a favour to the people he believed had paid the most to help the economy get back on track.
You cannot overstate the devastation caused by losing £200-a-month income from a £50,000 savings pot. This is what happened to thousands of savers when rates were cut.
Effectively, the money they lost went straight to the banks to keep them afloat, and to homeowners who would have struggled to keep a roof over their heads had rates remained high.
The National Savings Pensioner Bond will pay High Street-beating rates. And because of that the deals will prove popular.
But the rules for the bonds - limiting savers to putting in £10,000 per bond, making them reclaim tax if they don’t pay any, and not letting them take monthly income - mean that in three major ways they are seriously flawed.
No wonder the details have been kept quiet. If this Government is serious about saying thank you, it should come up with an account that is fit for purpose.



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JAMES CONEY: Barclays' closure of Premier Life account shows loyalty counts for nothing - so ditch and switch now

By James Coney for the Daily Mail
Published: 23:38 GMT, 10 February 2015 | Updated: 09:46 GMT, 11 February 2015
I have one message for all those ­Barclays customers upset at the way they’ve been treated over the closure of the Premier Life account: switch your account now.
Move to Santander or Nationwide, First Direct or Halifax — whichever suits you best. Do it today and by next Friday Barclays’ appalling behaviour will just be a distant memory.
The way Barclays has handled this affair highlights how shamefully loyalty is repaid in the banking industry. And I fear that the bank has put greed before loyalty.

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Make a stand: The closure by Barclays of its Premier Life account highlights how shamefully loyalty is repaid in the banking industry
One of the reasons customers should switch immediately is that for many this account will close before they get a chance to use the benefits again — meaning they are now ­paying £25 a month for perks that are ­effectively worthless.
If this applied to just half of the ­customers being moved over, that’s £27million in fees Barclays will be paid between now and September.
But, shhhh. Don’t tell the ­customers they’re chucking good money after bad.
On top of that, the way Barclays has behaved is a startling example of how badly some banks communicate to customers. They get so hung up in red tape that banks forget how to talk in a way people understand.
In this case, there is more going on. The letter that Barclays has sent ­customers is its poker face. It’s effectively a pair of dark glasses designed to disguise what is really going on.
Because if you could look in to the eyes of the bank you’d quickly realise one thing: it’s bluffing. There is no wonderful alternative deal for ­Premier Life customers.
Either Barclays hasn’t got a clue what it is going to offer them, and when it’s going to happen. Or, it is being as vague as possible in a bid to keep drawing in the handsome monthly fees customers are paying.
Poor form: 'The way Barclays has behaved is a startling example of how badly some banks communicate to customers'
An alternative is that it is just incompetent. That is the message many customers have been left with after ringing up to complain. Readers have also branded the letter ‘confusing’, ‘ambiguous’ and ‘insulting’.
What Barclays has failed to remember is that, because of its actions, ­customers may have overdrafts that need to be paid off, holidays already booked that they’re worried may need new travel insurance, and breakdown cover that might need replacing. They have lives that need planning.
I truly hope the ruse over fees is not the motivation behind Barclays’ shameful handling of the closure of Premier Life and its failure to give answers — in plain English — to ­customers who have stayed loyal with the bank for up to six decades.
Sadly, I have so little faith in ­Britain’s banks that I can’t guarantee it isn’t the case.
If you're fed up with your bank there are plenty of reasons why now is a good time to switch to another provider.
This is Money has a regularly updated guide to the best offers carefully chosen by its expert writers atFive of the best Current Accounts.
We round up some of the best deals on offer below:
Free money and incentives
Top deals include Halifax's Reward Account promising new customers £100 to switch and £5 per month if they stay in credit.
First Direct pays £125 to new customers who switch to its First Account. On top of that, the bank is so confident in its customer service that it will give you a further £100 if you chose to close the account within the first 12 months.
The Co-op, too, has introduced a £100 cash incentive for new customers. It will also donate £25 to charity on your behalf.
If you switch your main current account to one of the Post Office’s Standard, Packaged or Control current accounts the bank will give you a £100 gift card.
M&S Bank offers a £100 gift card to new customers signing up to its Current Account. The bank account offers an automatic £500 overdraft with the first £100 interest-free.
Interest-paying current accounts
Lloyds Bank is tempting desperate savers with its Club Lloyds current account - offering up to 4 per cent for balances between £4,000 and £5,000. But you will have to pay in at least £1,500.
TSB has also recently launched the interest-paying Plus Account, which pays 5 per cent on balances up to £2,000 and only requires a minimum monthly deposit of £500.
Santander's 123 current account pays interest on in-credit balances - 1 per cent on balances between £1,000 and £2,000, 2 per cent between £2,000 and £3,000 and 3 per cent on balances between £3,000 and £20,000.
Nationwide FlexDirect offers to pay 5 per cent interest on balances up to £2,500 for the first year, while its FlexAccount delivers free travel insurance. 
Contactless: The limit for contactless card transactions has been raised from £20 to £30
Tap into success
Yet another startling figure arrives showing the inexorable rise of new banking technologies: in London, around one in three of all credit and debit card transactions under £20 was contactless.
These payments are when you tap your card against a reader at a till, rather than insert it. You also don’t need to enter a PIN.
As a result of the popularity of these payments, the amount of you can pay for with each transaction is to be increased from £20 to £30.
Every now and again the till will ask for your PIN, to verify your account.
When we first wrote about contactless cards we raised concerns about fraud. All it would take was for your card to fall into the wrong hands and a crook could use it over and over again. But fraud levels are staggeringly low — just £51,000 in the first six months of last year.
Part of the reason for this is better bank technology, which means that unusual transactions are easier to spot — for example, if you only ever used it daily to buy a cup of coffee and then suddenly made ten payments in short succession.
With a limit of £20 per payment, the bank’s loss risk is negligible — particularly when you compare it to what can be taken from a cash machine in one go.
So brace yourself for more ­innovation. I have a suggestion for those boffins in the banking industry: I’d like to see debit and credit cards linked to email, so that receipts can be automatically sent there.
Not only would this cut down on waste — but help consumers who run in to problems over faulty products.
Thank you for all your letters and emails about our series: ‘Looking After Your Legacy'
Legacy letters
Thank you for all your letters and emails about our series: ‘Looking After Your Legacy’. They are thoughtful, enlightening, and many are truly heart-breaking. It is good to know that you’re finding our series useful.
What is striking is the lack of support many of you feel you have had from customer service staff at some organisations. This was best summed up by an email I received from a former bank manager who got in touch to complain that we were pointing the finger of blame unfairly at companies.
He said that too often problems were created because relatives didn’t know the rules or understand what they were supposed to do, and as a result had unreasonable expectations of banks.
I don’t agree. Grieving families need support. They are in an utterly unfamiliar situation, stressed and devastated. It is the job of financial companies to clearly explain the rules and help, not hinder, the process.
Sadly, while we can press for more guidelines to help ­mourning families, we’ll never be able to change the unsympathetic ­attitude of some people.


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Robin Thicke -- Hal-HO-ween Without Paula Patton

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Robin Thicke is clearly done trying to win his ex Paula Patton back ... because the dude rolled into a costume shop with 4 chicks and bought them all sexy outfits.

Thicke hit up Trashy Lingerie -- a supplier of celebrity undies -- and we're told he dropped $2,800 on his harem of hotties ... buying them skimpy greek bras and skirts for Halloween.

As you may recall ... Thicke went on a campaign to woo Paula Patton back into his life after they broke up -- but she filed for divorce anyway.

The single life ... it could be worse.

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Serena & Caroline -- Kick Manhunt Into Overdrive ... With Hot Bikini Selfies

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Serena Williams is pretty open about wanting to find a man ASAP ... and now she's going on the offensive -- posting a pretty hot body selfie to show off the goods.
The tennis star hit the pool at a fancy resort in the Bahamas with her BFF Caroline Wozniaki ... when they broke out the camera phones and starting firing away. The results were good. 

As we previously reported, Williams just said last week that she "desperately" wants to settle down and have children -- but noted that she's currently single ... "not by choice."

Wozniaki was engaged to golf star Rory McIlroy ... but he broke things off earlier this year while they were sending out their wedding invitations. 

Talk about post-breakup hotness ... 

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Zoe Kravitz -- Hot American Woman (PHOTOS)

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Actress/singer Zoe Kravitz donned what barely qualifies as a bikini as she frolicked in the ocean ... Wednesday in Miami.

With a body like that, everyone is gonna go her way.

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Floyd Mayweather -- Strippers Got $3,000 Each ... For Instagram Twerk-fest

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Floyd Mayweather shelled out $30k to get 10 strippers into his hotel suite for a crazy Instagram twerk video ... and he handpicked the women from a popular L.A. strip club ... TMZ Sports has learned.

The video blew up on social media Monday night when Floyd posted the 10-on-1 video to Instagram ... and the ass community went wild.

Now we've learned Floyd hired all of the women off the floor of Sam's Hofbrau Adult Cabaret in Los Angeles ... and forked over $3,000 per stripper.

We're told the women were hired to dance for an hour in Floyd's penthouse suite at a fancy L.A. hotel -- but some stayed later because Floyd had all sorts of food and drinks in the room.

But get this ... we're told there's a beef behind the scenes, because the women at Sam's who didn't get picked to twerk for Floyd are steaming mad ... and it's made for some serious tension at the office.

Strippers -- they have feelings too.

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Jason Momoa -- My Sun and Stars ... He's Hot!

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Former "Game of Thrones" hunk Jason Momoa took his man muscles down to Rio de Janeiro ... reminding us why he's the perfect choice to play Aquaman.

Wet. He wears it well.

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Caroline Wozniacki -- Serves Up Smokin' Hot Bod ... In SI Swimsuit Edition

'Daytona' Champ Joey Logano Loses Wedding Ring ... Recovers Perfectly HomeCaroline Wozniacki -- Serves Up Smokin' Hot Bod ... In SI Swimsuit Edition

Caroline Wozniacki Serves Up Smokin' Hot Bod ... In SI Swimsuit Edition 2/9/2015 11:43 AM PST BY TMZ STAFF

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Hey Rory ... you seein' this?

Check out these pics of tennis superstar Caroline Wozniacki -- featured in her very own spread in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

It seems Wozniacki's really let loose since golfer Rory McIlroy broke off their engagement last year -- she's been on several girls-only trips with her BFF Serena Williams ... and started posting all sorts of hot bikini selfies.

And now she's upped her game in the new SI pics ... even showing off her ass.

Caroline isn't the only athlete in the mag -- UFC badass Ronda Rousey also got a spread.

Stay tuned for those, but in the meantime ...

See alsoSerena & Caroline -- Kick Manhunt Into Overdrive ... With Hot Bikini SelfiesRory McIlroy & Caroline Wozniacki Break Up -- The Wedding Is OFFCaroline Wozniacki -- Crushes NFL & NBA Players ... 26.2 Miles at a Time Get TMZ Breaking News alerts to your inbox Yes! Also send me
"In Case You Missed It..." By clicking "Submit," you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. > See More:  Caroline Wozniacki, TMZ Sports, Hot Bodies,  6 More Break-ups, Sports Illustrated, Beauty, Stars In Heat, Celebrity Boobs, Celebrity ButtsHide these Comments

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NFL Prodigy Sammie Coates -- Adorable NFL Advice ... From 12-Year-old Cancer Patient 

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Mark Wahlberg -- My Wife's a Beach Bum

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Mark Wahlberg was caught swimming with a floatie this week in Barbados ... and by that, we mean his wife Rhea Durham's beautiful ass.

Ya couldn't blame Mark for having a funky bunch in his pants. Feel the vibration.

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Amber Rose vs. Kim Kardashian -- Who'd You Rather? (Rearview Edition)

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On the left we have Amber Rose, jet-skiing earlier this week in Miami ... while on the right we have Kim Kardashian, putting her ample backside to good use while vacationing in Thailand last year.

The question is ...

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Robert Pattinson -- Grabbin' a Handful of Booty

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Twihards, prepare to be extremely jealous of FKA Twigs ... Robert Pattinson is showing solid PDA with his new chick -- grabbing a heaping handful of her cheeks.

The famous couple went to lunch Friday in L.A. and Edward proudly squeezed his new moon.

Still doesn't excuse his new haircut ... but we're guessing Twigs likes the doo -- and it probably helps RPatz play grab ass with her more often.

Glass is half full.

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Amber Rose -- You Can Almost Sea My Doo

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One thing you can say about Amber Rose ... she's a crack jetskier. 

Amber made waves Monday as she traversed South Beach in all her glory.

Amber Rose ... gluteus to the maximus.

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Neymar's GF -- The Topless Beach Romp

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Here's proof Brazilian that superstar Neymar is winning at everything (besides the World Cup) ... his (reported) GF Serbian model Soraja Vucelic topless on the beach in Montenegro.

Soraja, who was Playmate of the year Serbia in 2011 (hey, it still counts) and Neymar have apparently gone public with there relationship recently posing for pictures together on social media.

In fact, Neymar is rumored to be so hooked on Soraja that he recently sent a private jet to scoop her up and deliver her to Barcelona before his team played in a huge soccer game against rival Real Madrid.

Judging by what we're seeing in these pictures, we can't say we blame the guy.

BONUS: Soraja bounciness on a segway below ... you're welcome.

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Ronda Rousey -- My Most Bangable Athlete Has Major Ball Skills

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Ronda Rousey is always in the convo when listing hottest athletes, but her pick for most doable male sports star is NOT in the fight game -- instead she's going for balls ... footballs.

You gotta watch to see if she's talking about the American variety or the worldwide brand (aka soccer). While she was at it ... Ronda also named her top smoke show female athlete.

Hint: She's got good feet too. Powerful feet that could give Ronda a run for her money in the Octagon.

Agree with her picks? Disagree? Let us know.

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