In early 2015, I was invited to an investment seminar which promised very attractive double-digit annual returns.

I was bemused by the vendors' declaration in their flyers and posters that investors' original capital was 100 per cent protected by an insurance policy, underwritten by Lloyd's of London.

A year and a half later, I came across the same marketing agent making the same fail-safe pitch of full insurance protection, underwritten by Lloyd's.

There were many more potential investors at this hotel seminar.

Most were elderly, retired folk. Nearly all of them said they were attracted by the "fail-safe" insurance guarantee.

When I checked with insurance professionals, I was told such type of policies do not exist, unless premiums were exorbitant or exclusion clauses were many.

After I consulted with Lloyd's on their alleged underwriting, I found that the Lloyd's name was no longer quoted at subsequent investment seminars.

It is now 2018. I gathered from some unfortunate friends who had bought into that publicly advertised promise of a fail-safe investment that it had turned out to be quite different from what they had been led to believe.

Could something have been done earlier to prevent so much heartache for so many people?

As a society that cares for the vulnerable, we should watch out for others, particularly the elderly, and do something to help before, rather than after the pain.

Lee Seong Wee