Regulators Focus on Complex Alternatives
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), as well as the SEC and state regulators, have announced that they are concerned about broker/adviser sales practices involving alternative...
View ArticleBe Careful When Considering Municipal Bonds
A recent Wall Street Journal column advises money managers not to put more client money in municipal bonds. The column sets forth a number of risks and problems that it urged money managers to consider...
View ArticleInvestment Policy Statements Are Important
A decided majority (61%) of financial advisers do not provide their clients with a written investment policy statements. Such policy statements should, at a minimum, be based upon a number of...
View ArticleHedge Fund Scams Harm Investors
Anastasios “Tommy” Belesis, owner of John Thomas Financial, a brokerage firm, and George R. Jarkesy Jr., a hedge fund manager, worked together to defraud investors in the John Thomas Bridge and...
View ArticleCDOs Haunt UBS
Swiss banking giant UBS AG is reported to be engaged in settlement discussions with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding its structuring and underwriting of an allegedly fraudulent...
View ArticleAlternative Investments – Are They All They Are Cracked Up To Be?
Rising interest rates may be death to traditional bonds and bond funds, but a number of alternative investment strategies allegedly designed to protect principal in a rising interest rate environment...
View ArticleMost of the Yield from Muni Bonds is Illusory
Allan S. Roth prefers low-cost diversified bond funds for investors seeking the best interest yields on their investments. Mr. Roth, the noted financial planner and Wall Street Journal contributor,...
View ArticleMore Risks Ahead for Muni Investors
Stockton, California, the most recent U.S. city to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, has presented serious issues about whether municipal bondholders will be forced to take a “haircut” while...
View ArticlePromissory Note Award Hits Broker-Dealer Hard
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Arbitration Panel has ordered MML Investors Services LLC to pay $1,137,923 to a California investor in connection with the sale of an unregistered...
View ArticleAlternative Investments – Big Problems
According to financial advisers, do not be fooled by the recent market in stocks into believing that we are in for a continuing period of sustained low volatility. Those advisers want you to expect...
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