Investor Information Category

Investors are overwhelmed with information about what they should do with their money. It is overwhelming because most of the information recommends different strategies and investments for the same problems and goals. A key element for investors is the trustworthiness of the sources of information. It pays to ask the sources how they are compensated for their recommendations, hom much, and by whom.

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@InvestorWatchdog.com
Site: http://www.investorwatchdog.com
About: Jack entered the financial services industry as an institutional consultant and later as vice president at Warburg, Paribas, Becker in 1976. From 1983 to 2003 he was the President of Lexington Capital Management and related companies. In December, 2003 John Wiley published his book "Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor". In 2004, he founded PaladinRegistry.com, a website that educated investors about financial advisors. A national Registry of pre-screened, five star rated advisors was added to the website later in 2004. In 2009, he founded InvestorWatchdog.com, a website that provides tools and information to investors who use the services of financial planners and financial advisors. Since 2004, Jack has been frequently quoted in the media on topics about financial advisors, Wall Street firms, investment scams, and the financial services industry (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Kiplinger, Washington Post, etc.).See Authors Posts (59) | February 2, 2012 | Investor Information, Who Can I Trust?

The big money management firms seem to be getting bigger so I don’t think so.
The big firms have two major advantages that they exploit with their marketing. They have revenues that permit them to spend a lot of money are marketing. It takes more than $100 million to build a brand name in America.
Their marketing [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@InvestorWatchdog.com
Site: http://www.investorwatchdog.com
About: Jack entered the financial services industry as an institutional consultant and later as vice president at Warburg, Paribas, Becker in 1976. From 1983 to 2003 he was the President of Lexington Capital Management and related companies. In December, 2003 John Wiley published his book "Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor". In 2004, he founded PaladinRegistry.com, a website that educated investors about financial advisors. A national Registry of pre-screened, five star rated advisors was added to the website later in 2004. In 2009, he founded InvestorWatchdog.com, a website that provides tools and information to investors who use the services of financial planners and financial advisors. Since 2004, Jack has been frequently quoted in the media on topics about financial advisors, Wall Street firms, investment scams, and the financial services industry (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Kiplinger, Washington Post, etc.).See Authors Posts (59) | January 26, 2012 | Investor Information

In a recent study conducted by PaladinRegistry.com and ByAllAccounts.com, a disturbingly high percentage of investors said they relied on financial advisor references to validate their ethics and performance.
This is disturbing at two levels. No advisor will deliberately give a prospective client a bad reference. In fact, references are carefully chosen to make sure they only [...]

By: Matthew Arndt, CFA, CPA, CFP | January 24, 2012 | Bad Products & Services, Investor Information

You may not realize this, but if you own mutual funds in your portfolio then you may be paying substantial fees to each mutual fund manager every year, in addition to an annual advisory fee to your investment advisor (An advisor simultaneously collecting both a commission and an advisory fee on the same portfolio is [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@InvestorWatchdog.com
Site: http://www.investorwatchdog.com
About: Jack entered the financial services industry as an institutional consultant and later as vice president at Warburg, Paribas, Becker in 1976. From 1983 to 2003 he was the President of Lexington Capital Management and related companies. In December, 2003 John Wiley published his book "Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor". In 2004, he founded PaladinRegistry.com, a website that educated investors about financial advisors. A national Registry of pre-screened, five star rated advisors was added to the website later in 2004. In 2009, he founded InvestorWatchdog.com, a website that provides tools and information to investors who use the services of financial planners and financial advisors. Since 2004, Jack has been frequently quoted in the media on topics about financial advisors, Wall Street firms, investment scams, and the financial services industry (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Kiplinger, Washington Post, etc.).See Authors Posts (59) | January 19, 2012 | Investor Information, Performance Reporting, Watchdog Benchmarks, track records

There are three performance numbers that should matter to you.
First, is your performance goal. Let’s assume you have to average a 10% rate of return to achieve your financial goals.
Second, is your absolute performance. What return did your investments deliver? If your performance was 10% then you achieved your financial goal for that year. You [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@InvestorWatchdog.com
Site: http://www.investorwatchdog.com
About: Jack entered the financial services industry as an institutional consultant and later as vice president at Warburg, Paribas, Becker in 1976. From 1983 to 2003 he was the President of Lexington Capital Management and related companies. In December, 2003 John Wiley published his book "Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor". In 2004, he founded PaladinRegistry.com, a website that educated investors about financial advisors. A national Registry of pre-screened, five star rated advisors was added to the website later in 2004. In 2009, he founded InvestorWatchdog.com, a website that provides tools and information to investors who use the services of financial planners and financial advisors. Since 2004, Jack has been frequently quoted in the media on topics about financial advisors, Wall Street firms, investment scams, and the financial services industry (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Kiplinger, Washington Post, etc.).See Authors Posts (59) | November 30, 2011 | Investor Information, The Politicians, Wall Street Business Practices, Wall Street Ethics, Wall Street Executives

I have been blogging for months about the SEC’s practice of letting Wall Street companies pay fines for committing fraudulent acts.
Finally, Jed Rakoff, a U.S. District Court judge rejected a $285 million settlement between Citigroup and the SEC. Citigroup was accused of mortgage fraud – in this case, a $1 billion CDO that cost investors [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@InvestorWatchdog.com
Site: http://www.investorwatchdog.com
About: Jack entered the financial services industry as an institutional consultant and later as vice president at Warburg, Paribas, Becker in 1976. From 1983 to 2003 he was the President of Lexington Capital Management and related companies. In December, 2003 John Wiley published his book "Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor". In 2004, he founded PaladinRegistry.com, a website that educated investors about financial advisors. A national Registry of pre-screened, five star rated advisors was added to the website later in 2004. In 2009, he founded InvestorWatchdog.com, a website that provides tools and information to investors who use the services of financial planners and financial advisors. Since 2004, Jack has been frequently quoted in the media on topics about financial advisors, Wall Street firms, investment scams, and the financial services industry (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Kiplinger, Washington Post, etc.).See Authors Posts (59) | November 21, 2011 | Illegal Schemes & Scams, Investor Information, The Politicians, Wall Street Ethics, Wall Street Executives

You can’t blame Wall Street for the low retirement savings rates of most Americans.
You can blame Wall Street for the bubbles, scams, and fraudulent activities that have reduced the value of the savings accounts of most Americans. Or, how about the pressure Wall Street analysts exert on American companies to earn more money. Thousands of [...]