Financial Advisor Scams More than 650,000 registered financial advisors in the United States help manage more than $30 trillion of investible assets. A recent study “The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct” found that financial advisor misconduct is broader than many realize – 12% of the financial advisors in the United States have disclosure records and 7% have been disciplined for misconduct and/or…
Participants in their company’s 401(k) plan have come to expect that their employer will protect their personal information from disclosure outside the plan. However, plan participants of Shell Oil’s 401(k) have filed a case in federal court in Galveston, Texas – Harmon v. Shell Oil Company – alleging Shell took no action to stop the plan’s recordkeeper, Fidelity, from using participants’ personal…
401(k) documents are notoriously mystifying—and notoriously ignored. “I must say,” admitted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at recent oral argument of the United States Supreme Court, “I don’t read all the mailings that I get about my investments.” For about 72 million American workers, 401(k)s are “nest eggs.” Employees expect their 401(k) investments, along with social security, to provide them with a steady income during…
No doubt you have seen the news recently about the stock market gyrations caused by the uncertainties arising from Covid-19. Because many Americans’ retirement savings are invested directly and indirectly in the stock market, now may be the time to evaluate how your 401(k) is holding up through this market volatility. Foremost, a fund that has lost value in this…
“Crypto crime”—that is, a crime involving cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, including...
Typically, stockbrokers earn commissions each time an investor enters a securities order to buy stock or sell stock. Full-service stockbrokers earn higher commissions than online stockbrokers because, unlike online stockbrokers, full-service stockbrokers provide investors with the added service of advising you when to buy, sell or hold particular investments. Because stockbrokers are paid on commission, there is an inherent conflict…
In recent years, employees have been filing an increasing number of meritorious lawsuits against employers for 401(k) mismanagement. These claims are in the tens of millions of dollars and range from disloyalty to imprudence to disregarding conflicts of interest. Some of the more egregious claims come when employers populate 401(k) plans with their own expensive and poorly performing proprietary investment…
The average person seeking financial advice for their retirement is unaware that the persons giving them advice are under no obligation to be loyal to their needs, to make prudent investment recommendations for them, or overall to act in their best interest. As a result, over the years many financial advisers motivated by their own self-interest have taken advantage of…
is currently investigating the way E* Trade recently handled the assignment of a naked in-the-money put on the S&P 500 ETF (symbol SPY). A volatile price drop in SPY on the Friday of expiration triggered a likely assignment of 5,000 SPY shares. Rather than closing out the put contract before the close of options trading on Friday, or waiting until…
In an effort to enhance investor protections, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is proposing a new rule – Regulation Best Interest – that may come as a surprise to some investors. The SEC’s proposed rule requires your stockbroker to act in your best interest at the time he or she recommends an investment to you, something that the average…