NEWS
By EILEEN AMBROSE | July 5, 2009
It would be nice if Bernie Madoff's 150-year prison sentence would scare straight any financial adviser who ever thought of duping a client. But that's not likely. While most advisers are honest, there will always be some who will betray clients' trust for a quick buck - or billion. Last year's stock market crash devastated portfolios, causing many investors to realize they could use the help of a professional. Unfortunately, it coincides with the Madoff scandal and other high-profile cases of suspected fraud.
NEWS
By McClatchy-Tribune | January 7, 2007
If you're looking to hire a financial planner or adviser, you're making a decision that likely will affect your entire life. And the vast array of choices can make the decision mind-boggling. Anyone can call himself a financial planner, says Jack Waymire, author of Who's Watching Your Money? So don't assume that having a certain title ensures skill or expertise. You also want to be objective - don't let a planner or adviser's personality or sales skills affect your decision. You want to objectively consider three factors: credentials, ethics and business practices.
NEWS
By Jay Hancock | May 1, 2005
ONLY 213 YEARS after the New York Stock Exchange's founding, the government has added regulation requiring many brokers to say this before they take your money: "Our interests may not always be the same as yours." No kidding! Besides enjoying commissions on stock and bond trades whether or not the trades help your portfolio, brokerages often receive what amount to legal kickbacks from sellers of mutual funds, variable annuities and other products. A broker might be tempted to sell you a mediocre fund with a big referral fee instead of a great fund with no fee. No, his interest is not the same as yours.
NEWS
By Tom Petruno | February 19, 2005
Allegations that American Funds arranged improper sales deals with brokers are posing a quandary for financial advisers, who have helped make the Los Angeles firm the nation's most popular mutual fund company in recent years. After 17 months of revelations that have rocked the fund industry, some advisers say it's difficult to find high-quality companies that haven't had their reputations sullied. "Quite honestly, where else do you go?" asked Emerson Fersch, a principal at Capital Investment Advisers in Long Beach, Calif.
NEWS
By JANET KIDD STEWART | October 17, 2004
INVESTORS learned some painful lessons in the last few years, from the importance of diversification to the discovery of a host of conflicts of interest on Wall Street. Or did they? Tech stocks came roaring back into favor earlier this year, as did the volatile emerging-markets stock sector. And independent stock research firms - those that don't derive revenues from investment banking business - have failed to catch on. Investor complaints to the National Association of Securities Dealers ticked up again last year after declining steadily since the bursting of the Internet-stock bubble in 2000, and arbitration case filings surged 16 percent last year.
NEWS
By BLOOMBERG NEWS | September 25, 2004
CHICAGO - Morningstar Inc., a U.S. research firm used by 3 million investors to decide what mutual funds to buy, said yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the company for publishing incorrect performance data for a fund. The SEC may sue the firm, founded 20 years ago by Joseph Mansueto, for violating securities laws, Morningstar said. The company said it overstated the returns of the Rock Canyon Top Flight Fund from March 12 to March 23. Morningstar said the regulator may be concerned with how long it took to correct the information.
NEWS
By Gregory Karp | August 8, 2004
Investing mistakes M-y mostly born of ego, emotion and ignorance M-y are costing investors big time. And investment advisers say they see the same errors made year in and year out. The first step in avoiding common blunders is knowing what they are. The worst mistakes include: Buying single stocks risks multiple errors ItM-Fs a lot easier to make mistakes when investing in individual shares of stock. Here are some common bonehead errors: Investing in individual stocks at all Unless you really know what youM-Fre doing and can stomach tying your future to the fate of a few individual companies, choose mutual funds instead.
NEWS
By Robert Manor | July 15, 2004
The Securities and Exchange Commission moved yesterday to increase its oversight of hedge funds, the sometimes volatile investment tools of the wealthy that now operate almost without regulation. SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson, a Republican, joined two Democratic commissioners in voting to issue a proposal requiring hedge funds to register with the agency and disclose basic information about their management. Until recently, Donaldson had been in the Republican camp and opposed to increasing regulation.
NEWS
By Michael Dresser and William Patalon III | September 26, 2002
The Securities and Exchange Commission told a top Maryland pension official that Nathan A. Chapman Jr. violated federal law when he permitted money managers he supervised to invest state pension funds in his own companies, newly released documents show. Carol Boykin, the pension system's chief investment officer, wrote in a March 19 memo that the SEC regards the purchases of Chapman stock as breaking a securities law, the Investment Advisers Act. "I was told by the SEC that these transactions were a violation of fiduciary duty according to section 206 (an anti-fraud provision)
NEWS
By Eileen Ambrose | December 8, 1999
If you want to be a barber in Maryland, you need to demonstrate that you can cut hair. But if you want to offer investment advice for a living, you don't need to show that you know the difference between stocks and bonds.That will change next year.Maryland and other states that license investment advisers in January will begin requiring would-be advisers to answer questions about the causes of inflation, annuities, the risks and benefits of bonds and stocks, and how certain investments or strategies will respond in a healthy or sluggish economy.