Who Can I Trust? Category

Every investor wants a competent financial advisor they can trust. But, how do you measure the trustworthiness of advisors? You should select advisors who provide documentation that proves they have no compliance problems, they are Registered Investment Advisors or Investment Advisor Representatives, they are acknowledged fiduciaries, and they work for fees.

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 17, 2012 | Deceptive Sales Practices, Full Transparency, Who Can I Trust?

Due diligence is the process investors use to gather and evaluate financial advisor information before they sign a contract or invest assets.
Full disclosure is a financial advisor business practice that is based on the professionals’ willingness to provide complete, accurate information to investors. Based on these descriptions, there are three types of advisors.
High quality advisors [...]

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 1, 2012 | The Politicians, Who Can I Trust?

In modern America, there are two ways to achieve this financial goal.
One is the traditional way. Come up with a great idea. Develop a strategy for achieving goals. Raise some capital. Execute the strategy. Make changes as necessary. Raising capital is iffy because most investors do not want to risk capital on unproven ventures. In [...]

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) | December 29, 2011 | Bad Financial Advice, Insurance Companies, Who Can I Trust?

I say “absolutely not” if the agent’s primary business is selling auto, home, or health insurance. It is a different story if the agent’s main business is selling variable annuities and other investment products inside insurance contracts. Even then you should be questioning the agent’s experience, registrations, and certifications.
You might be asking, “Why do [...]

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) | December 19, 2011 | Deceptive Sales Practices, Full Transparency, Wall Street Ethics, Who Can I Trust?

What is full transparency when you buy investment advice, recommendations, and products?
Transparency occurs when investors are provided an easy-to-read document that contains all of the facts they need to make an informed decision when they select advisors and invest their assets.
Wall Street spends millions of lobbyist dollars per year fighting transparency. Corrupt politicians who are [...]

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) | December 13, 2011 | Investment Performance, Who Can I Trust?, investment risk

If you are like a lot of investors you lost 50% of the market value of your assets due to the market meltdown that occurred in late 2007 and 2008 – the Dow dropped more than 7,000 points.
That is very bad news. Even worse news is the number of years it will take to recover [...]