Most people who have been haphazardly investing in mutual funds are already aware of this, but I am going to remind you again. 90% of stock mutual funds reported negative returns in 2002, this according to Weiss Ratings. This is the third consecutive year that investors have suffered declines in stock funds. The Scorecard -19.22% […]
We have noticed a startling amount of malfeasance in regards to the use of variable annuities. More and more investors who we have helped over the past year have had variable annuities inside their IRA accounts. Investors were being sold a product while their “advisor” was reaping a hefty commission and they were being sold […]
The fines are not over for the big bad brokerage firms. Our country’s largest investment banks are now facing a $3 billion to $4 billion liability from lawsuits arising because of all the conflicts, scams and rip-offs that have been pulled on Americans over the past 5 years. Citigroup said it is setting aside a […]
Eliot Spitzer and his band of regulators required that the ten large cartel firms would have to fund some independent research scheme to the tune of $450 million. There were some superb points about the “repentance” part of the settlement brought to light by Emily Lambert and Michael Freedman from Forbes Magazine, which needs to […]
We have been tracking the buddy club story for the past two years and have caught several firms in the act including Smith Barney, CSFB, and Merrill. Now we have a new member of the buddy club, Goldman Sachs. It is now evident that the buddy system was in full effect at Goldman Sachs. Top […]
If there was an award for clever advertising for financial firms, Charles Schwab would be the hands down winner this year. They were responsible for “putting some lipstick on the pig” and now they are touting how independent and better they are. Charles Schwab is getting out of the discount brokerage business. They want to […]
The concept of an indulgence is based on the medieval Catholic doctrine that states sinners must not only repent of sins that they have committed; they must also confess these sins and pay some sort of retribution. Author and historian Richard Hooker states that the history of medieval Catholic doctrine is in many ways an […]
We broke a story back in October of 2001 about a broker named Chung Wu, formerly of the Houston office of UBS PaineWebber. Mr. Wu was fired after doing the right thing. His so-called crime was sending e-mails to clients suggesting that they liquidate their holdings in Enron before losing their proverbial shirts. Mr. Wu […]
Credit Suisse First Boston is a firm that has enjoyed the dubious honor of gracing the pages of our newsletter and has been the topic of conversation on our radio show on many occasions. Nothing like an encore! In an effort to dig up additional business, CSFB told a prospective client it would conduct more […]
Since our inception we have done our best to carry on the good fight for individual investors. We try to do everything possible to educate, inform, and warn of all the landmines, booby traps and pitfalls that can adversely affect individual investors. In September of 1997, I wrote an article that articulated one of the […]