Wednesday, May 22, 2013

5 Signs That Your Investment Advisor Is Scamming You

Sign No. 1: An Adviser Won't Provide Real-Time Trading Information.
In the case against Capital Management Associates, the SEC alleges that the duo ran trades without specifying whether they were for clients' accounts or for the owners' accounts. Then, once the profitability or loss of the trade was assured, the company would backdate that information, assigning the profitable trades for themselves and the losers to clients.


Sign No. 2: An Adviser's Returns Are Too Good to Be True.
Bernie Madoff swindled investors out of billions of dollars in what has been called the largest Ponzi scheme ever uncovered. While Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange and securities representative on SEC industry panels, knew enough to hide from the regulators for decades, his returns were too consistent to be real.

Sign No. 3: You're Getting Hot Tips That You're Told You Need to Act on Now.
Any legitimate investment worth owning will still be available tomorrow, after you've had the time to think about it (and research it independently). Any pushy advisor telling you things like, "You've got to act today to get in on the ground floor" or "You don't have time to read the paperwork" is asking you to act without reviewing something, which is a common hallmark of a scam.

Sign No. 4: You're Promised Investments That Will Be "No Cost to You."
If you're working with a financial advisor, that advisor is getting paid by you, either directly by checks you write or indirectly via commissions, spreads, or fees generated by the investments you make. Any adviser claiming otherwise is hiding something -- likely an outlandishly high fee for placing an investment or insurance policy, which can often run north of 7 percent of the invested amount.

Sign No. 5: Your Account Is Being Churned and Burned.
And speaking of fees, be wary of an adviser who regularly churns your account through multiple trades of similar types of annuities, mutual funds, or other investments. If your adviser is getting paid through a hidden commission from making the transaction, that activity is very likely lucrative for the adviser ... but not so much for you.


The contents of this post are pieces of a larger article. For more information and to view the full article please visit this link 5 Signs That Your Investment Advisor Is Scamming You

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