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Investment abuses and fraud

Financial Services Industry Continues Its Anti-Investor Campaigns

May 21, 2013

Very few industries are as blatantly anti-customer as the financial services industry. As the following stories show, key elements of the financial industry are actively promoting legislative, regulatory and legal campaigns designed to denigrate any benefits to customer-investors, including a powerful campaign underway by a financial trade group to derail any pro-fiduciary actions from the…

Retirement and 401(k)

PBS Frontline Airs Powerful Segment on the Nation’s “Retirement Mess”

Apr 24, 2013

Advocates for passive investing, mutual fund fee disclosure, fiduciary reform and the critics of the nation’s poorly designed $10 trillion 401(k) and retirement industry gained some high ground in this critical debate last night (April 23, 2013) in the PBS Frontline segment, “The Retirement Gamble.” Host and co-writer Martin Smith used case studies of different…

Retirement and 401(k)

Reacting To Bad News–How Plan Sponsors and Fund Companies Can Respond to the Frontline Show, “The Retirement Gamble,” that aired April 23

Apr 22, 2013

Crisis management is a well-discussed topic in corporate PR. So it should not be surprising that the upcoming PBS Frontline segment, “The Retirement Gamble,” slated to air April 23, should focus more attention on excessive fees and how they hurt investor returns. (Check local listings here.) This rare national airing of bad news about abuses…

Investment abuses and fraud

Washington’s Regulatory Revolving Door Keeps Spinning

Apr 3, 2013

Regulatory capture, or the practice which occurs when government regulators become too friendly with the industry they are regulating, is a well-documented sociological-political event. It happens in every industry regulated by state and federal governments, especially those agencies which regulate the financial services industry. What makes regulatory capture among financial regulators especially egregious is that…

Retirement and 401(k)

How Conflicts of Interest Can Taint 401(k) Advice

Mar 29, 2013

In 2013, the current industry standard when providing financial advice to individuals is to adopt a holistic approach. Advisers commonly ask their clients about their financial and estate planning goals, risk tolerances, tax situations, income expectations, claims on existing assets, retirement plans, even medical-related questions about how long they expect to live. But when providing…

News

Financial Professionals’ Salaries Getting More Public Scrutiny

Mar 23, 2013

Any experienced financial professional knows mutual fund wholesalers are overpaid. These salaries have been discussed and criticized in my book (How 401(k) Fees Destroy Wealth and What Investors Can Do To Protect Themselves) and on this site as early as Oct. 29, 2011. Now, U.S. News & World Reports agrees. In their March, 21, 2013…

Retirement and 401(k)

CALPERS Focuses on Fees and Passive Investing

Mar 19, 2013

The investment committee of the $265 billion California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) is evaluating the impact of fees it is paying for active management and whether those fees are justified, according to a report in Investment News. The problem is that it is expensive and problematical to pick the right active managers who will…

Investment abuses and fraud

Better Late Than Never: FINRA Discovers Conflicts of Interest

Mar 16, 2013

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” (Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose) –French Proverb Today’s announcement that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA), the brokerage industry’s regulator, will be looking at information from 14 large firms regarding potential conflicts of interest related to compensation and product sales, should…

Retirement and 401(k)

SEC Not Embarrased By New Fee Study

Mar 9, 2013

For the past three decades, the SEC has been talking about investigating mutual fund company fee practices, including revenue sharing, sub-transfer-agent, 12(b)-1 and fund company conference support. Now, in March 2013, the SEC has again announced it will spring into action and conduct “a nationwide initiative to review mutual fund distribution fees. Based on this…

Economic justice

Stagnant Wages Fuel the Save-and-Splurge Cycle

Mar 7, 2013

A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) finds that the gap between employee’s hourly compensation and their productivity is the highest it’s been since after World War II. According to a report from CNN Money, “this divergence is one of the major drivers of the nation’s growing income inequality.” The EPI report found…