No Response, Feedback or Update - Unacceptable Service

<p>I am extremely disappointed in the service that we have received from your company. I was appointed as a guardian for my brother(18) and sister(9) after their mother passed away in February this year and her pension fund were invested with your company. My brother has completed school(matric) and needed to be enrolled into a higher institution to further his studies. We have had various communications with the administrator who was supposed to assist us with accessing his benefit funds to assist with his education and living expenses. However, It has been weeks since we have been trying to get assistance from your company; and unfortunately for the past week we have not been able to receive any feedback or response to our emails and our calls are not being answered anymore.</p> <p> </p> <p>Initially we were instructed to sign some consent form which states that we are agreeing that Alexander Forbes must invest my brothers pension benefit for a specific period, of which minimum period of 12 months and that he will he will be given a monthly allowance based on the interest earned and at the discretion of the Trustees. We resisted to sign this form as this was not making clear sense to us, as we had various questions which we expected answers for before we could agree to signing any forms. But to our disappointment, none of our questions were properly addressed or clearly answered. Our proposal was to request Alexander Forbes to take care of his education and living expenses for this year only, we therefore provided the company with a list of all his annual expenses including tuition fees and accommodation expenses; and we basically needed Alexander Forbes to give us a reassurance that these expenses will be handled by them this year using these funds, which are his funds after all. However, we were not able to get clear answers or any form of reassurance to confirm that his costs will be covered using these funds! In the process of all the back and forth email communications we clearly stated all the registration dates and closing dates for enrolment and accommodation. Unfortunately as I type this review, he has missed his registration dates and classes started over a week ago. He is still at home, not able to attend school as he is currently not registered with the institution and cannot even secure accommodation.</p> <p> </p> <p>The most frustrating part is when you can tell that your emails are being blatantly ignored and your calls are not answered and your questions are not answered or no form of clear communication to help us understand the issues. Due to the pressure we have been having to ensure his registration and accommodation is secured, we eventually signed the 'consent forms' and even requested for an advance to be paid out immediately to assist us with his immediate needs. Up to this day we have not received any feedback to confirm receipt of these forms or approval of our advance request, I have sent various emails to follow up but still have not heard anything from the administrator, I’ve also called and still our calls were are not answered. To us it seems like the interest of the client does not come first at all! The fact that my brother is of age and no longer a minor is not even considered, let alone his current needs for education and living, instead we are told the decision is not up to us but up to the trustees of the fund. I thought the Trustees are supposed to protect these funds to assist the children especially with ensuring they get education and are able to be provided for in terms of their living expenses. </p> <p> </p> <p>We are not happy at all with the kind of service we have been getting from your company.</p> <p> </p>