The time is ripe for financial scammers who seek to take advantage of senior investors. Recently a 76-year-old Texas insurance agent was sentenced to up to 15 years for selling fake annuities to other elderly investors. The scammer in this case just happened to be the same age as many of his elderly victims. Mr. […]
Investors, especially in retirement accounts, are pouring money into so-called “stable value funds” but the stability of those funds is not as advertised. The funds are often sold as higher-yielding money market funds, but they lack the safety and stability of a money market fund. Also, the higher-than-money-market yield and stability come at a price […]
More than a year after it was created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opened its Office of the Whistleblower on August 12, 2011. According to a statement released by SEC Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami, “early and quick law enforcement action is the key to preventing securities […]
Renown Yale economist Robert Shiller recently issued two warnings that investors should carefully evaluate. Shiller is well known for predicting both the recent housing crash that began in 2006 and the tech crash in 2000-2001. While investors should always be skeptical of predictions, Shiller’s track record is such that his predictions are worthy of consideration. […]
Sales of deferred variable annuities have increased since the 2008 market crash as investors wary of the stock market are lured by promises of guaranteed lifetime income and protection against market declines, according to a Bloomberg article by Margaret Collins entitled “Lifetime-Income Promise Fuels Surge in Variable Annuity Sales.” But many financial advisors are not […]
Daniel Indiviglio writes that Wall Street is designing a new derivative that would allow purchasers to hedge against longevity risk (or speculate on it) in his article entitled “Death Derivatives: Has Wall Street Finally Gone Too Far?” in the Atlantic.
Life Partners Holdings, Inc. and its two top officers have received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission informing them that the SEC staff intends to recommend a civil enforcement action against them for allegedly misrepresenting the life expectancies of insureds whose life insurance policies it sold to retail investors, according to a […]
As the elder population increases, various forms of elder abuse are on the rise. This includes investment fraud and outright theft. Scam artists especially target senior citizens who have seen their investment portfolios decline in value.
Zeke Faux’s Bloomberg article, “Indexed Annuities Can Yield Surprises,” focuses on complexity of the contracts that obscure high fees and long lock-up periods, and the fact that investors do not understand these products.
Bloomberg commentator Susan Antilla smells a rat. Wall Street is “fighting full-tilt” against the SEC’s whistleblower proposal that would tend to expose hidden wrongdoing. The SEC is “barraged” with their objections. “That’s not how people behave unless they’re hiding something,” Ms. Antilla says in her Bloomberg.com article, “Madoff Repeat Odds Rise With Neutered Watchdog’.”
