Preston Howley III Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 You'll actually do better: http://www.fool.com/investing/international/2007/01/17/todays-strong-buys-international-edition.aspx?source=iflfollnk0000003 and http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/shaughnessy/20070107-9999-1b7lynn.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugg Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I have some clients who are very well-educated, have had great jobs, advanced degrees, very politcally-connected. Thes ar smart people. The wife had a "family friend" and neighbor who held hismelf out as a "financial planner" to her and everyone else. And as long as when they moved he could write a bank check for the new house, it was cool. Because they felt they knew and trusuted this guy, they didn't worry too much when statements seemed incomplete and he never had website access. BUT.... My clients are out a good chunk of their life savings. Apparently one day a new customer, about to put his life savings with this guy, decided to ask questions before writing the check. First being to see if was still in compliance with the local state registry. Ands in fact he'd never been so registered at all. He then found that the "funds" this guy talked about didn't exist.The guy had calimed for years he could get 18annualized return no matter what the market. In essence what he found was this guy had been running a multimillion dollar Ponzi scheme accross the Northeast, scamming thousands of people of their life savings. As people needed moneyt, he'd scam another mark to stay liquid, robbing Peter to pay Paul, with no intention of paying Paul. And then the whole thing blew up-the guy claimed to be suffering from MS(which, if you think about it, is a very convenient disease to have if you wish pretend to be fine one day and incapacitated the next as you face a criminal trial), organized crime figures threatening to kill the bastard for scamming them, family friends embarrassed, dsigusted and broke, law enforcement locking him up, and so on. Lesson being-get statements; get instant internet access. Investing is your retirement, your kids' college. Don't sit there like a lump on a log. ASK QUESTIONS. Trust-but verify,as the last real president worth a damn might've said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preston Howley III Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 I have some clients who are very well-educated, have had great jobs, advanced degrees, very politcally-connected. Thes ar smart people. The wife had a "family friend" and neighbor who held hismelf out as a "financial planner" to her and everyone else. And as long as when they moved he could write a bank check for the new house, it was cool. Because they felt they knew and trusuted this guy, they didn't worry too much when statements seemed incomplete and he never had website access. BUT.... My clients are out a good chunk of their life savings. Apparently one day a new customer, about to put his life savings with this guy, decided to ask questions before writing the check. First being to see if was still in compliance with the local state registry. Ands in fact he'd never been so registered at all. He then found that the "funds" this guy talked about didn't exist.The guy had calimed for years he could get 18annualized return no matter what the market. In essence what he found was this guy had been running a multimillion dollar Ponzi scheme accross the Northeast, scamming thousands of people of their life savings. As people needed moneyt, he'd scam another mark to stay liquid, robbing Peter to pay Paul, with no intention of paying Paul. And then the whole thing blew up-the guy claimed to be suffering from MS(which, if you think about it, is a very convenient disease to have if you wish pretend to be fine one day and incapacitated the next as you face a criminal trial), organized crime figures threatening to kill the bastard for scamming them, family friends embarrassed, dsigusted and broke, law enforcement locking him up, and so on. Lesson being-get statements; get instant internet access. Investing is your retirement, your kids' college. Don't sit there like a lump on a log. ASK QUESTIONS. Trust-but verify,as the last real president worth a damn might've said. The biggest scumballs out there currently are Primerica reps. These leeches find out what state pension plans have optional provisions to allow the employee to make the switch, talk them into it, and then have them rollover out of the safe investment plan, into one of their loaded IRA's. The most tragic part of it is, the last few years towards retirement is when their pension plan compounds the most. These poor fools are transferring the funds and then working another 5 years! These Primerica reps are so ignorant or evil that they either don't know this, or don't care. Its one thing to encourage somebody to take funds from a guaranteed pension and put it into a fund at the mercy of the market and management fees, it's quite another not to mention that if they wait and do it in 3 or 4 more years, they will have at least another 200 to 300 thousand dollars in compounded interest to transfer over. If your setting somebody up to rip them off, wouldn't you at least wait until they acquired even more money for you to steal? Dumb*sses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Jet Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 The guy had claimed for years he could get 18annualized return no matter what the market. Rule #1: If it sounds too good to be true ; it IS too good to be true. Do your homework !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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