Flint Wealth investment platform forced to close
The Flint Wealth management platform has been forced to close following the sale of Trustees Executors to Apex Group and the withdrawl of the custodial and registry services it had provided to Flint.
Wednesday, July 17th 2024, 10:37AM 
1 Comment
by Jenny Ruth
In a letter to investors, Flint said that Trustees Executors has advised it that it won't be able to provide those registry, custodial and other services beyond Aug 31.
“Flint Wealth has contacted several providers of similar custody and registry services. Unfortunately, all have advised that the critical services cannot be implemented within the required timeframe,” the letter says.
“Without the registry and custodial services provided by Trustees Executors, Flint Wealth is therefore forced to suspend its offering to New Zealand clients,” it says.
Trustees Executors has also said isn't able to effect an in species transfer of existing Flint investments to fund managers directly or to another platform.
“While Flint Wealth is frustrated and saddened to advise this situation, it is beyond Flint Wealth's control.”
The letter asks investors to redeem any investments by close of business on Friday July 25, that this step may take two to three days to complete, and to withdraw all cash held with Flint.
“After July 25, the custodian … will sell down investments on your behalf and return the proceeds to the bank account associated with your Flint Wealth account.”
It says investors will be sent a final tax statement.
“It is with profound sadness that Flint Wealth has had to take these steps. We wish all investors and clients a happy investing future,” the letter concluded.
In April, GoodReturns reported there were questions about Flint's future after Harbour Asset Management and Grace Sterling subsidiary Trustees Executors had apparently refused to continue funding it.
Both organisations had already written off their investments in Formosa Wealth, Flint's parent company, although the situation was then portrayed as a change in ownership.
Flint had claimed to have more than 120 funds from 13 managers on its platform, and that a large financial advisory firm was using its platform and that another fund manager was about to start using Flint's “white label” service.
Flint had refused to name these firms and had consistently refused to say what its funds under management were, unlike other platforms such as InvestNow and Sharsies.
Flint's co-founders,Darren Howlin and Oliver Trusler, had said they were looking for new capital partners to fund expansion, possibly into Australia or to launch a KiwiSaver offering – Trusler and Howlin are based in Australia, although they said they developed the technology in Taiwan where they said it continues to be used.
GoodReturns has contacted Howlin and Trusler for comment but has received no response as yet. We will update the story if they respond.
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It is also serves as a caution for various segments of the value chain to continue mastering their chosen field of expertise rather than attempting to be a generalist across all aspects of wealth management (do what you do well... etc)