Yieldstreet Anmeldelser 96

Had a structured note investment that lost about 15%. So be it. Sometimes investments don't work out.

However,Yieldstreet showed throughout the term (and after the end of the term) that the investment is "Performing". Makes we wary of believing all their statistics of how consistently successful their offerings have been. Finally, my account continues to show my initial investment PLUS the amount returned, thereby overstating the balance by $20k.

So they aren't honest about performance or accurate in their reporting.

These guys are horrible. No response through customer service. they use a bot to chat with but no one answers. There is no phone number to call. Every statement I have recieved has been wrong. Stay away from these guys.

Just aweful. I mean, the total experience.

I originally learned about Yieldstreet when seeing a simple ad in my Gmail advertising a 3.5% yielding money market fund. In hindsight, I should have avoided this company as it seemed to good to be true. Turns out it was.

I signup for a Roth IRA with them and decide I'm going to be investing $1,000 a year while I keep contributing $5,000 a year to Merrill which will still be invested in the stock market (this is important as you will see later).

The rep from Yield street where very nice and sent me a form I needed to fill out to do my initial $1,000 contribution. The form was with their banking partner, Pacific Premier Trust. I fill out the form and ask if I'm going to have to fill out this form for every $1,000 contribution and I'm told they can setup auto ACH from my bank account, which works well.

So now I have filled out the forms, submitted cancelled checks and I ask Yield street what fund I need to buy on their website for the 3.5% money market fund (or if my idle cash will simply earn 3.5%) and I'm told that the 3.5% fund is not for IRA accounts and you need to be an accredited investor (with requirements that are significantly higher than I'm comfortable parking with Yield Street). The only fund you can invest in is their "Prisim" Fund which owns artwork and other alternative assets, certainly not an asset class I want included in my IRA and a far cry from a 3.5% yielding money market fund. So fortunately my account was showing a $0 balance and I tell Yield Street to cancel my account being setup and they oblige. I thought I was done with Yield Street. Turns out this was just the beginning.

Despite my account having a $0 balance on their website and my email chain clearly confirming I don't have an account with them I start getting statements in the mail from a company called Pacific Premier Trust. I found the statements odd, I don't recall ever having an account with them so I ignore them for a few months.

Then I realize my bank account is being debited monthly into a Roth IRA with Pacific Premier trust and adding insult to injury this is causing me to make excess contributions to my Roth IRA. I contact Yield Street and I'm advised that yes, the money is being withdrawn as I setup automatic withdrawals and even though the yield street site shows a $0 balance, it is going into an account with Pacific Premier, despite the fact that I didn't want to invest and withdrew my consent to invest.

I've now finally gotten ahold of Pacific Premier, I'm going to eat the 6% IRS penalty for the excess contribution and now Pacific Premier advises me that there's a $275 account closure fee! This is on a $1.6k balance at this point, quite excessive if you ask me.

I would encourage anyone investing their money avoid companies like YieldStreet who hold your money at another entity and who may charge fees totally undisclosed on their site. I would also encourage anyone who happens to be an accredited investor to avoid the 3.5% money market fund after the paperwork nightmare I've documented here. I will be posting the same review to Pacific Premier Trust.

I have invested in six offerings. Three have closed with returns approximately near the target interest rate return. One is currently under a "modified outlook" determination and the last two are in default. One of the two in default appears in my opinion to have a very low likelihood of recovering any of my invested principle and certainly none of the targeted interest, the other in my opinion has very little chance of recovering the entire principle and certainly appears that I will recover significantly less than the invested amount. What is most concerning is that the cause for the two deals defaulting according to Yieldstreet is that the were "defrauded". Also of great concern is that they have been opaque about the legal action taking place hiding behind a cloak of "Please note that in order not to jeopardize these recovery efforts, we are refraining from sharing highly sensitive information". Based on the limited information provided, It appears to me that the primary cause for both defaults is lack of adequate due diligence and most importantly securing collateral assets to protect in the case of default. This is concerning because if you read Yieldstreet's promotions in general and on the deals in question, these are two areas they claim as their areas of expertise. I recognize the inherent risks in alternative investing and would come to expect that some deals will default and may not provide expected returns due to normal business risks. However what is of the greatest concern is that these defaults occurred because of what appears to me, to be negligence in due diligence on the part of Yieldstreet. Also of great concern is the extremely poor client service provided by Yieldstreet in the communication and lack of transparency in these defaults. They provide very limited in information and lip service which is inappropriate considering investors are at risk of losing millions of dollars.

02/05/22 UPDATE:
I have pulled all my money from YS and will NEVER do any business with them ever again. I was lucky that all my deals went to term, but I know way too many others who lost money w them. And, of course, there is the pending court cases on the fraud claims re their marine deals. On top of the dubious deals offered by YS, the worst part for me was how utterly awful their 'Customer Service' is. Instead of IR doing what they can to help serve their investors, their default is to simply cut/paste responses and to react defensively (read:rudely) when called out on their shoddy and lazy work. The worst part, for me, is that I cannot fully break free from this terrible company until I finally get my 2021 tax forms...which has been made even more difficult because YS 2FA simply does not work (and I've tried using a US and PH number). AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COST!

First time using the crowdfunding platform for investing and YS, so far, is doing the job for me.

Strengths:
- excellent, diverse investment opportunities (that sell out in mere minutes)
- nice-looking, very informative front-end (website)
- their "wallet" is a very nifty tool (makes investing easier/quicker and the interest rate is competitive)
- easy integration with other banks (for ACH; although I have had some issues with a couple of transfers)

Areas for improvement:
- customer service is email only (which would be fine, but it's also been slow and somewhat ineffective so far)
- they must work more closely with IRA partners to make the integration/setup easier (it's rather kludgy atm and Investor Relations has zero idea how things work with the Custodial partners and YS has not opened up their API)
- ACH transfers have been problematic (appears to be a tech issue, which I've reported)

I've conveyed my concerns to the head of Investor Relations and will upgrade my rating, when/if improvements are put in place.