Posts belonging to Category Crowd Funding



Alternative Investments – Big Problems

 

According to financial advisers, do not be fooled by the recent market in stocks into believing that we are in for a continuing period of sustained low volatility.  Those advisers want you to expect lots of volatility and market corrections and to invest accordingly. In light of the foregoing, investors should adopt alternative investment strategies […]

Alternative Investments – Often Tainted by Sales Practice Abuses

 

Investors in search of fixed income have poured money into a variety of alternative investments, including nontraded real estate investment trusts (REITs).  Alternative investments encompass most investments other than traditional stocks and bonds and mutual funds that hold stocks and/or bonds.  There are three basic clusters of problems that investors who are considering these products […]

Alternative Investments Begin to Haunt LPL Financial

 

LPL Financial, the country’s largest independent broker-dealer, is encountering serious problems involving its sales of alternative investments. LPL is also (not coincidentally) one of the country’s largest sellers of alternative investment products. In 2011, LPL sold $758,435,677 of variable annuities (which are considered by most industry observers as being alternative investments) and $110,643,148 of other […]

Will Alternative Investments Fuel the Next Financial Debacle?

 

Investors are being sold more and more alternative investments and large broker-dealers are ramping up to supply that demand, according to the Wall Street Journal (“Alternatives Get a Boost”). The trouble is that most investors do not fully understand these products and their brokerage firm advisers do not fairly explain the risks and problems associated […]

Massachusetts’ Action Reveals the Dangers of Crowdfunding Investments

 

Massachusetts has filed fraud charges against two out-of-state companies, Prodigy Oil and Gas LLC and Synergy Oil LLC, in connection with their sale of unregistered securities to Massachusetts investors. Prodigy raised at least $464,000 from one Massachusetts investor and Synergy raised $35,000 from two investors, according to Commonwealth Secretary William Gavin’s complaint.

State Regulators Concerned that JOBS Act Regulations Facilitate More Investor Fraud

 

The organization of state securities regulators (NASAA) has published a sharply critical comment letter in response to the SEC’s proposed regulations implementing the Jump Start Our Economy (JOBS) Act. Among other things, the Act eliminates the prohibition against general solicitation of investors for certain private offerings. NASAA basically accused the SEC of total abdication of […]

USA TODAY Article Highlights Some Dangers of Crowd-Funding

 

It will not be long before companies and individuals with no assets and no track record ? indeed anyone with a computer – can raise investment capital from ordinary folks over the internet with very limited disclosures and regulation. Crowd-funding, as the concept is known, was approved by Congress as part of the Jobs Act. […]

State Regulators are Filing More Claims Against Investment Advisers

 

Investment advisers and their firms are facing increased scrutiny from state regulators following enactment of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act and the high profile press coverage of the Madoff ponzi scheme and other fraudulent activities. The number of regulatory enforcement actions against investment advisers increased by 100 percent in 2011. Regulators are on the lookout […]

New Scams Threaten Investor Nest Eggs

 

New types of scams are posing threats to investor well-being. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), a group of state securities regulators) has identified four new types of fraud to go along with the 6 persistent fraud threats that round out their Top Ten Threats to Investors.

Regulators Warn Investors about the Dangers of Crowd Funding Investments

 

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), an organization comprised of the 50 state securities regulators, believes that the crowd funding provisions of the so-called JOBS Act are just another “Regulation D-like rip-off,” according to InvestmentNews (“Crowd funding draws scorn from NASAA,” by Mark Schoff Jr.). Regulation D provides a registration exemption for certain investments […]