Dark Side of Financial Services

Being a fiduciary means more, regardless of what the Department of Labor might write in their press releases.

Add this to the list of reasons to avoid long-term care insurance and strive to self-insure.

It is important to understand your investment philosophy well enough to know what they aren’t telling you.

You don’t need their product. You don’t even need to know why their specific product is bad. Just say no.

You don’t need to know why an annuity is a bad deal to say no.

By being relentless about turning off marketing, you protect your finances from the poor decisions that advertising inspires.

This is a fairly easy way to receive a 5% reward for my gasoline purchases but it does require that you have a family member who served in the military.

We think keeping expenses low is an important part of the investing process.

Once set up, the extra rewards may be worth the extra effort.

Given the purposeful complexity and limitations to structured products we suggest you avoid them.

On Tuesday, July 13, 2021, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show with Rob Schilling to talk about Elder Abuse Scams and how to protect yourself.

I recommend the NAPFA search tool and suggest you avoid the CFP Board’s search tool until they change how they do their searches.

We would suggest not listening to Dent’s commentary or investing in his fund.

All of these factors contribute to the low inclusion of people of color among those holding the CFP® certification.

Recently, I signed up for the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards credit card offering a $200 online cash rewards bonus and 3% cash back in the category of your choice.

Here are the most common elder scams and how to prevent them.

Anthony Diaz was convicted on seven counts of wire fraud and four counts of mail fraud for investing in illiquid assets.

The culture of many commission-based firms makes it a poor environment both for employees and clients. Don’t take a chance with your retirement.

It is difficult to know which sites to trust, but it is easy to know that someone is violating one of the eight safeguarding your money standards or can’t answer the ten questions to ask a financial advisor.

The worst cause of employer stress is the fact that there exist many financial salespeople who offer plans which benefit themselves at excessive cost to the employer and their employees.

Avoid allowing the firm that has custody of your assets to also give you advice.

Consumers often presume that an advisor associated with a large commission-based brokerage firm will have a team of managers supervising their advisor. This is a misconception.

As fiduciaries, we are on your side to ensure that your goals are met. Protecting you from elder fraud is just one of the many services we can offer as a part of comprehensive financial planning.

They admit that they do not rebalance, have been subject to lawsuits claiming they are predatory, and are held to a relaxed standard designed specifically for them.

That is not what anyone means by the term “rebalancing.” The misuse of the term on Investment News was glaring.

At stake is if the SEC is allowed to redefine what the phrase “best interest” means to make it mean something less than your actual real-world best interests.

Already the COVID-19 predictions have started to come in. Do not be deceived by them. Do not be afraid of them.

We would suggest not listening to Dent’s commentary.

If you weren’t spending your money on useless treatment, you could enrich your life in other ways, retire earlier, or be richer.

There is an incentive to lie when your methodology is bad.

In all fields, the best methodologies are boring.

Even if all four of these sentimental or pragmatic justifications are true, doing the wrong thing is still worse than doing nothing.

“It is, of course, hard to get people in any profession to do the right thing when they’re paid to do the wrong thing.”

This pitch is made by Bill Shaw of Stansberry Research, the same group that brought you the perennial “Reclusive Millionaire Warns” spam article. Don’t be gullible.

There are at least seven major mistakes in this advice by Wells Fargo Asset Management.

Nice is different from good. You want a good financial planner not just a nice one.

Understanding the most powerful sales techniques doesn’t change the fact that they tend to work.

I cannot imagine any consumer who, if they understood how such a select list of advisers was actually compiled, would use this list. Why limit yourself only to firms willing to pay a referral service to endorse them?

Be on your guard to avoid wasting money following the advice of an article written to maximize revenue.

These are four possible consequences of Regulation Best Interest.

The SEC is allowing financial professionals to hide in a lower legal requirement, not meet a fiduciary standard, and call it “Best Interest.”

It requires discipline to ignore dire warnings.

On June 5th, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released their final draft of Reg BI, or “Best Interest” as it is called.

Rumors suggest that the network’s vetting is a five minute process where you are told the fees are about $1,000 a month.

The title is “Reclusive Millionaire Warns: ‘Get Out of Cash Now.’ ” Assuming you take the bait, the article and accompanying video uses all the psychological tricks. It takes a long time before what they are selling is revealed.

Cross-Selling is when a financial institution incentivizes their employees to sell or recommend financial products and services that increase the financial institution’s profits. The practice is as commonplace as it is fraught with conflicts of interest.

SEC announced that 79 investment adviser firms will return more than $125 million to clients after self-reporting violations of the Advisers Act.

The expense ratio charged by your funds matters more than you may realize.

Disclosures are always necessary but rarely sufficient to fulfill fiduciary obligations.

If you own these fund families with your Ameriprise Advisor, perhaps you should consider switching to a fee-only financial advisor.