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 practice full disclosure because they have nothing to hide. Your questions can cover Education, experience, certifications, compliance record, criminal record, conflicts of interest, and investment expenses.

Then there are advisors who practice partial disclosure. They volunteer information that makes them look good and they withhold information that makes them look bad. These advisors are dangerous because you don’t what information is being withheld and more importantly why it is being withheld.

The last group of advisors practice non-disclosure. They use personalities and sales skills to market investment and insurance products. They hope you do not ask them meaningful questions and if you do they use four deceptive sales tactics to avoid providing truthful responses: Omission, misrepresentation, exaggeration, and verbal responses so you have no documentation.

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 7, 2012 | Advisor Monitoring, Financial Advisors, Performance Reporting, track records

Money managers have track records. That is because they provide the same service to multiple investors. Examples of money managers are mutual funds, separate account managers, and hedge funds. These managers are firms of professionals who select investments (securities) for your assets.

Financial advisors do not have track records. They say it is because they provide different services to their clients. For example, the services they provide their younger clients are very different compared to the services they provide their retired clients. Financial advisors recommend money managers, but do not make securities selection decisions themselves.

I can accept their argument, but I also take it with a grain of salt. It is possible to divide their clients into categories and develop track records for each category. Their advice does not vary much within a category. However, this would be an expensive, time consuming process to do it right.

Just because advisors do not have track records does not mean they are not accountable for your performance. Their advice helps you allocate assets between investment classes and they recommend the money managers who actually invest your assets in securities.

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 7, 2012 | Advisor Monitoring, Performance Reporting

Two reasons are pretty obvious. There are no online services that monitor financial advisors and most investors are not inclined to develop their own monitoring systems.

Monitoring advisors is common sense. You don’t turn your assets over to a third party and not monitor his or her results. Where is the accountability if there is no monitoring?

And, you certainly don’t let advisors who are responsible for producing performance monitor themselves. That is like the fox guarding the henhouse.

A solution is coming. A new version of the InvestorWatchdog.com website will launch at the end of this month. The site will provide a FREE monitoring system investors can use with any advisor at any firm in America.

And, you get to select what information is monitored: Performance, exposure to risk, investment expenses, your advisor’s compliance record, and other information that impacts your results and your relationship with your advisor.

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 2, 2012 | Illegal Schemes & Scams, The Politicians, Wall Street Executives

There is no question Occupy Wall Street has gotten a lot of publicity – most of it bad.

One of its goals is to increase the awareness of the American public about the greed and corruption that permeates Wall Street. It has not accomplished this goal. Its message has been obscured by tents-in-the-park.

Unfortunately, it does not stand for a clear-cut cause that people can rally around. Its message is rapidly becoming old news – even if it has a float in the Rose Parade.

If Occupiers are fed up with Wall Street they should have shined their spotlight on company executives who made millions when they decided to rip-off the American public. They should use public data to publish a Top Ten List. The spotlight should focus on the executives’ decisions, compensation, and the damage they did to their own clients and the American public.

Occupiers should also shine their spotlight on the politicians who pass regulations that protect these executives from prosecution for their crimes. Wall Street executives can commit crimes and their companies pay fines without admitting any guilt.

According to the SEC it does not have the legal resources to prosecute the executives of large companies. Its solution is to levy fines that become a cost of doing business for the executives’ companies. Consequently, there is no downside for corrupt executives.

Occupiers should be focused on making executives and politicians accountable for decisions that damage the American public. This is a cause worth fighting for.

Wall Street greed and corruption will not go away until the incentives to cheat investors have to be removed and executives who commit criminal acts are sent to jail.

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 fact, most entrepreneurs have to give up a lot of equity to get the capital they need to develop an idea into a business that has revenues and profits.

Then there is the non-traditional way. Become a politician and vote for regulations that apply to the people who elected you, but not you (Insider Trading, IPOs). Then use the exemptions to become a millionaire.

Also, people will give you money, lots of money, to help you get elected. And, you do not have to pay them back. They are willing to fund your campaign to get favorable treatment when you are elected. Their payback is regulations that enable them to make more money and retain more of that money after tax.

Politicians don’t give up equity to raise money, they give up their integrity.

The political route seems easier and safer. Maybe universities should start offering classes on how to become a millionaire by getting elected to public office.

And, we wonder why our country has problems.

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 auto insurance agents sell investment products?”

Because they work for greedy insurance companies who are run by executives who put their companies need for profit way ahead of their customers’ need for competent financial advice.

Visualize this! A group of executives are sitting around a conference table one day and one of them says “Our biggest asset is our three million customers. What else can we sell them that will generate new revenue streams for the company? This new business will have great profit margins because we already have the distribution system in place?”

The executives all nod their heads in agreement. New revenue streams mean increased profits and increased profits mean bigger bonuses. As usual, customers are just a means to an end.

Don’t kid yourself! This is how all of the big casualty insurance companies got into the financial services business. They decided to leverage their customer relationships by cross-selling additional products. Apparently mutual fund products and car insurance products have a lot in common.

You may like your car insurance agent, but that does not mean he is qualified to recommend investment products – in particular for assets you are accumulating for retirement.

Buyer beware!