I am absolutely astounded by the sheer, shameless effrontery of Elite Titles, and the claims that they make for their totally spurious offerings, in witness I quote from their web-site:
“With a Title in front of your name you will experience a difference in people’s attitudes. The moment they know you are a ‘Sir, Lady, Lord, etc’, you will be treated like some sort of Royalty or famous Film star.
In the business world people take you more seriously with a Title, career wise you’ll find it a real door opener. When you make reservations in restaurants, you’ll find yourself sitting at the best tables, with attentive service. Both small and large organisations appreciate the effectiveness of having a “Lord on the board”! Check into a hotel and experience the ultimate preferential treatment often with complimentary fruit and wine in the best room.
Just imagine it…… Lord John Conner…… Lady Susan Wright… Count Richard Blackthorn. Airlines will often upgrade you. Bank managers just can’t help you enough. You can use it when and where you want. It says more about you than a Gold or Platinum credit card. For personal confidence and self esteem a Title will change your life for the better.”
The first thing to make clear is that it was made illegal to sell titles over two hundred years ago; all they can do is to change your name by deed poll, and quite frankly any old idiot could do that, you certainly don’t need to pay them £195 ($325) a ‘title’ or £295 ($499) for a pair to do something that is completely meaningless anyway.
The idea of a large corporation taking you on to add prestige to their board of directors is just laughable; mind you, perhaps Enron might have been prepared to do it as they didn’t seem to check out anything very well.
If you want to change your name by deed poll to whatever you want (within reason), it is a simple, inexpensive process and you certainly do not need to pay Elite to do it. However, whatever you decide to call yourself, it will not give you a title.
What is quite amazing that Elite even give themselves away by stating that these ‘titles’ are non-inheritable. However, they then go on with an yet more outrageous offer, of so-called Seated Titles, which simply do not exist in Britain.
Referring to the estate of Lady Margaret Farmer in Dartmouth – though strangely to be called Lady Margaret Farmer she would have to be the daughter of a Duke, Marquess or Earl, yet she doesn’t appear in any British reference books – you can buy a plot of land there and choose your Seated Title, for the princely sum of £995 ($1,600), and then they have the barefaced cheek to ask you an extra £100 to expedite it in the specially shortened period of 2 to 3 weeks. For what?
As a final clincher, you might be interested in the advice given out by The Land Registry, an arm of the British Government, about so-called Seated Titles; they provide a straightforward and clear warning:
“The impression might be gained that the land certificate or Title Information Document that we issue is a certification or guarantee by a government department that Mr John Smith is now “officially” Lord John Smith of Mayfair. Please note that the land certificate or Title Information Document does not in any way certify or guarantee this.”
You might be interested to learn from the experience of reporter Toby Walne, who found that he didn’t profit from the ‘title’ that he bought from them