I have been completely misled and misrepresented by the Snow Cap agency in Colorado.in June I paid Snow Cap to schedule two Federal Employee Benefits seminars; one in Key West, another in West Palm Beach, FL. To date, Snow Cap has been paid a deposit of $3,300 ($1,650 for each seminar).
I run a Wealth Management firm in Miami, and was expanding our services to serve federal employees. I am writing this report because I don't want other financial advisors to get burned. I have already referred snow cap to 2 friends, my reps and my sister who is expanding her financial practice in Cleveland to serve federal employees. She's pregnant and expecting in 2 months, so I'm glad I found this out when I did since I was able to warn them before throwing her money away. It makes me sick that I have referred these people.
The ONLY reason I scheduled a 2nd seminar is because they informed me via telephone and email that they had an "easy 50" attendees for the 1st, and could easily schedule more for the 2nd. They called my office continuously, pressuring for a deposit for the 2nd seminar. They guaranteed 50 attendees via email so I paid them another deposit. All this was done before the first one was completed.
One week before the Key West seminar they notified me that there were fewer than 10 attendees for both seminars! I still don't know what happened to the other 90. They blamed the Federal Executive Board when it wasn't the F.E.B.'s responsbility to fulfill our contract. It was Snow Cap's.
By their own admission they failed to fulfill their contract with another financial planner here in Miami, referring to him as a "cry baby". I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They failed, took his money, AND trashed him.
Snow Cap seems to make a habit of taking money from financial planners, failing to deliver their services as promised, and BLAMING the customer for their failures. I have since talked to other advisors throughout the country who have heard similar stories; they weren't shocked.
For over 6 weeks they communicated to me that they were keeping in close contact with the Federal Executive Board; what I later discovered (by their own admission) that they had not had contact with the F.E.B. For 6 weeks.
On July 20th I spoke with Judy Snow. When I explained to her that I was lied to and pressured her response was "YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO SAY YES". Sixty seconds later she said "WE'LL HAVE TO GET YOU A REFUND". Twenty seconds after that Snow said "THERE IS NO MONEY". Within 20 seconds she went from refund to "there is no money". Then she hung up on me. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
If you are a financial planner considering Snow Cap to put on seminars for you for the federal market, save your money and more importantly your time. If they screw up, they will not accept accountability, and they will find anyone to blame for their failures but themselves. Chances are, they'll blame the customer.
They made derogatory comments about members of the Federal Executive Board, other financial planners — AND in each case, they did so while defending themselves for FAILING TO KEEP THEIR PROMISE!
I doubt they'll refund my money. I spoke with the other advisor in Miami, and he had to hound them for weeks before getting a partial refund. I don't have the time. I sponsored over 35 seminars last year; I invest over $50,000/year on seminars and presentations and was planning to spend more than half of that each year with Snow Cap — Thank God I saw their true colors early.
Thank you for taking your time and consideration.
Kindest regards
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