Freedom Financial Management Inc - The Law Offices Of Richard A. Lenard Scam company, fakes addresses, not a legitimate company Santa Ana California

Freedom Financial (also known as Alliance 8) has scammed me out of $6,400.  What this "former employee" said above is pretty much been my experience with them.  You'd be wise to stay away from this company.

From the State Bar of California for Richard Allen Lenard:

http://members.calbar.ca.gov/search/member_detail.aspx?x=153916

Disciplinary and Related Actions

February 12, 2005 RICHARD ALLEN LENARD [#153916], 49, of Anaheim was suspended for one year, stayed, placed on two years of probation with a 30-day actual suspension and was ordered to make restitution. The order took effect Feb. 12, 2005. Lenard stipulated to two counts of misconduct. In the first, he failed to remove his partners name from his law firms client trust account after the partner was disbarred. In a personal injury case, he failed to promptly pay a client his settlement funds. After the money was deposited in Lenards client trust account, his employees embezzled client funds, including the $16,847 that was owed to that particular client. Although Lenard informed his client about the embezzlement and promised to make full restitution, he did not do so. The State Bar Client Security Fund reimbursed the client more than $11,000. Lenard also was disciplined in 2003 for misconduct in five personal injury cases. He failed to perform legal services competently or deposit client funds in a client trust account and committed acts of moral turpitude.

April 18, 2003 RICHARD ALLEN LENARD [#153916], 47, of Anaheim was suspended for two years, stayed, placed on three years of probation with an actual one-year suspension and until he makes restitution, and was ordered to take the MPRE and comply with rule 955. The order took effect April 18, 2003. Lenard stipulated to misconduct in five personal injury cases involving Vietnamese clients. He received settlement funds for the clients but did not maintain an adequate balance in his client trust account. Some clients never met or talked with Lenard. He allowed three employees to add their names as alternate payees on numerous checks written against the trust account, allowing the account to be overdrawn. Lenard reported his employees to the police and two were prosecuted for felony grand theft. Lenard stipulated that he failed to properly supervise his staff and breached his fiduciary duty to his clients. He stated that his employees had him sign duplicate distribution checks, which caused the trust account to be overdrawn. In addition, after signing distribution checks and returning them to the staff for mailing, his employees typed in their names as additional payees and cashed the checks. Lenard went on local Vietnamese radio to warn the community about his staffs actions and provided contact information so victims could reach him directly. He also has changed his settlement distribution practices.

Info from BBB about Freedom Fidelity Management:

http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Freedom-Financial-Management-Inc-100072156

BBB Reliability Report for Freedom Financial Management, Inc.

 "F" rating with the BBB for reasons:

Company Rating F Our opinion of what this rating means: We strongly question the companys reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the laws licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the companys industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.

 raw your own conclusions, but do your research before giving anyone any money.

Freedom Financial Management Inc. would like to respond to the claims of this libelous report. We take great pride in the services we provide for our customers and our commitment to helping every enrolled customer become debt free. Please read below so we can differentiate between the truth and the false accusations that were posted above:

1. This complaint was posted by an Erica from Orange, California.
Truth: This complaint was NOT posted by an employee named Erica but by a former employee named Dawn Morand. We know this because our attorneys tracked the username id of this complaint to her inspire.com page which also displays her picture.

2. She writes I am not disgruntled. I am an honest person.
Truth: How can Ms. Dawn Morand claim to be an honest person when she writes this complaint with a fake name (Erica)? Dawn, in her 15 days of employment, never once brought any of these issues up to fellow employees, her direct supervisor, or anyone in management thus this falls well within the common understanding of disgruntled. She has to be disgruntled to write such a libelous and untruthful complaint. She listed this complaint the same day she was terminated from the company. The reason why she was terminated so quickly was because her manager noted that she was very slow on performing the tasks she was responsible for and was not even operating with half of the capacity needed to perform her job duties. Freedom Financial Management will not and has never tolerated an employee who does not meet the high level of expectations we demand.

3. She makes the claim The Law Offices of Richard Lenard and Freedom Financial
Management provide misleading information.
Truth: Our programs are clearly outlined to our potential customers. We send an 11 page document outlining the services we provide, the fees and how the program works. No client can join over the phone as they must carefully review the documentation and send us their paperwork backed signed. Furthermore, we mandate that every new client whom enrolls into our program completes a 22 question recorded compliance call. This compliance call outlines again the services provided, the fees and structure of the program which the client has to answer to each question Yes, I completely understand before their file can move forward. This guarantees that every customer enrolling into our program is completely informed and that any questions they may have are answered prior to them enrolling and beginning the program.

4. She makes the claim ...they do not contact the creditors except in a Cease and Desist Letter, does not call and fight for the consumers
Truth: The truth of the matter is not only do we send Cease & Desist letters out to the creditors but we are in constant contact with the creditors. Not only do customer service representatives service creditor calls throughout the day but we have a Debt Negotiator division that also services creditor calls. An average customer service agents fields over 5 hours of creditor calls a day our negotiating division over 6! In fact, one of the many reasons Ms. Morand was terminated was due to her inability to do over 5 hours of talk time a day dealing with both creditors and customers. Freedom Financial Management saw this very quickly and made a decision within 15 days to terminate her employment because of her inability to perform her job tasks.

5. She makes the claim consumers think their money is going to a so called trust fund but it really goes to the feeswhen a client goes to cancel their account, they lose thousands and are not refunded their money.
Truth: Our clients are set up with Individual Savings accounts upon enrollment into our program and funds are available for settlement their FIRST MONTH. This gives our clients access and control over their funds at all times. If a client ever chooses to cancel, the funds in their savings account are refunded back to them and as an added layer of protection we offer a service fee guarantee. In the event that we are not able to settle a debt with a creditor a service fee refund may be granted. How Ms. Morand makes this libelous remark makes no sense since she completed training on these contracts which outlines how funds are accumulated for settlement and how our service refund policy works.

6. She makes the claim employees are told to never give a straight answer and to lie to clientswhen the creditors hardly ever work with us.
Truth: Our employees are NEVER told to lie to a customer because there is NEVER a reason to lie. Freedom Financial Management has done everything in our power to assure that every person entering into our program knows what to expect from the program and how the process of our program works. The statement that creditors hardly ever work with us is categorically false our average debt negotiator settles over 80 settlements a month. Clients can even view actual settlements received through our Negotiation Department on our website.

7. She makes the claim I have looked into a clients file to find out that their was
money to negotiate, but was told to state that there wasn't. Freedom doesn't want you to ever settle as they lose money.
Truth: Freedom Financial Management has NEVER instructed our Customer Service Representative's to lie or mislead our clients with the amount of funds available. Quite frankly, this remark does not even make any sense since the funds are held in the client's own personal savings account which they can view by going online or through their monthly statement to see what funds are in their account at any given time. The statement that Freedom Financial Management actually loses money if we settle a debt is ridiculous. Again, we have actual statement available on our website and since it the client's funds that settle the debts, not ours, we are thrilled to see our clients step closer to being debt free. As a matter of fact, 15% of our business comes from referrals from existing clients-that is a pretty good indication that our clients are satisfied with the results of the program.

8. Ms. Morand claims that she was told to tell clients that we worked in a call
Center that we took calls for different companies and we used that address for general correspondence.
Truth: Freedom does NOT and has NEVER taken calls for other companies. The only clients it has ever represented are Freedom Financial Management's clients. The address that we use for clients is to our mail center that our clients use for their creditors. We get a tremendous amount of mail from our client's creditors and they need to be sorted at a mail center: 3337 S. Bristol St. Suite 156 Santa Ana, CA. The mail is then delivered to our facility which is located at 1536 E. Warner Street, Santa Ana CA 92705

9. Ms. Morand claims Freedom has actually moved like 2 times in the last year and a half they have been in business, don't have a sign on their door, and are planning on moving again to a different building on 2/1/09.
Truth: Freedom has been in the same building since its incorporation at the same address listed above 1536 E. Warner Street, Santa Ana, CA 92705. We would love to hear the 2 places Ms. Morand claims since we have been rooted in this building since we started. Ms. Morand is correct we do not have a sign on the outside of our building. The reason we do not have one on the outside of our building is because we always knew and had faith we were going to outgrow our building. On 3/1/09 we will be in our new facility at 1901 East Alton Avenue, Suite 240, Santa Ana CA 92705 nearly three blocks away. We are moving to our new building which will be over 23,000 square feet over 4 times the size of our current facility. This is a testament to our growth and service we are providing for our customers. We feel extremely blessed and we look forward to the added space this will provide our company and how it will better service the needs of our clients. This building has been an answer to prayer and Ms. Morand can be assured that their will be a large corporate sign on the building we have been working hard and believing for.

Currently, our company is seeking litigation against Ms. Morand who has posted libelous remarks against our company and our services.