Deceptive Sales Practices Category

Criminals market illegal investment products, like Ponzi Schemes, to unsuspecting investors. This is the tip of the iceberg. Most advisors market legal products that produce high incomes for them and bad results for investors. They use a number of deceptive sales tactics to make themselves sound like experts when they sell investment products. Very few investors recognize deceptive sales practices when they are impacted by them. That’s because the advisors have had years of training and practice.

By: Matthew Arndt, CFA, CPA, CFP | August 25, 2010 | Deceptive Sales Practices, Wall Street Ethics

Is your advisor unexpectedly changing his business model or practices? Do you suddenly find yourself in front of your advisor with him telling you all about the virtues of his new fee-based business? Explaining to you the merits of why his managing your portfolio for a fee is beneficial to you? Do you wonder why [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | February 3, 2010 | Deceptive Sales Practices, Sales Representatives

The Financial Times reported BofA Merrill Lynch plans to hire 2,000 brokers over the next 12 months. They will hire inexperienced brokers rather than pay big upfront fees for established professionals. These brokers will market investment products to BofA’s 17 million mass-affluent customers who need wealth management services.
Alois Pirker, research director at Alte Group LLC [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | January 29, 2010 | Deceptive Sales Practices, The Politicians

I was reminded the other night, watching President Obama’s State of the Union message, that politicians and low quality financial advisors use the same deceptive sales tactics.
First, Obama told people what they wanted to hear. They wanted to lower unemployment; he will lower unemployment. They wanted economic growth; he will create growth. Financial advisors use [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | November 17, 2009 | Deceptive Sales Practices, Illegal Schemes & Scams

The SEC charged two companies, including a financial planning firm, with conning senior citizens out of their retirement money when they made extraordinary claims about investing in a biotech startup.
According to the SEC complaint, advisory firm Speed of Wealth convinced more than 300 investors, many of them seniors, to liquidate their pension plans and invest [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | November 9, 2009 | Bad Products & Services, Deceptive Sales Practices

How can investments be rated AAA one day and junk the next? When investment bankers pay substantial fees to rating agencies to obtain high quality ratings for garbage products. Moody’s, one of the biggest rating agencies in the U.S., has been accused of providing AAA ratings for subprime mortgage pools that were assembled and marketed by Goldman Sachs and [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | November 7, 2009 | Bad Products & Services, Deceptive Sales Practices, Illegal Schemes & Scams

In a fictitious scenario you attended a retirement planning seminar and met a person who reeked of respectability in his pinstripe suit, button down shirt, and wingtips. He was one of the most likeable people you had ever met and he immediately began asking you questions about your personal financial situation and your goals. You interpreted the questions as him taking a [...]