Apparently if you have money invested in the accounts of companies like Colonial First State of Challenger Financial (and numerous other finance companies) they can just freeze your investment and give you no recourse to get your money. I am not even aware of any time limit that has been put on this.

Obviously these companies can do this or they wouldn’t be doing it, or can they?

I am lucky, at this stage my money is either in a ‘guaranteed bank’ or I own a share in some of these companies that are freezing these funds. As an owner of several of these finance companies I am happy that there is not a mass panic to withdraw money from these funds but as a human being I can understand the anguish of anyone who currently is refused access to their money.

I would be interested if a person were to visit one of the institutions in which they have money invested, demanded their money, and were refused, what would occur if said person produced a pistol and demanded his money? I am quite sure they would be subdued with the mighty tazer. But realistically, he couldn’t be charged with attempted robbery surely? I would be interested as to how this stands up in court. Maybe this is where the fault of not actually reading the fine print in all those financial documents signed comes home to roost. Welcome to frozen funds, population the customer.

I wasn’t all that concerned about my deposited money in the first place, I was slightly comforted by the government guarantee but am far more concerned with the results we are seeing from this action. Not to side with one political party over another, because both originally supported the policy but maybe the government guarantee of bank deposits in this country is one of ‘most well meaning’, but, biggest stuff ups in recent memory.

Thoughts?