New and Bestselling AICPA CPE Self-Study Courses Best Sellers – March 2008 Avoiding Circular 230 Malpractice Traps and Common Abusive Small The following year, multiple insurers paid him commissions totaling $720,000 as his business with retirees soared.
But many of those sales came from steering older Americans into unwise investments, regulators contend in a lawsuit.
Mr. Sell Bigpolicy denies all wrongdoing, but one of his clients – a 73-year-old widow caring for a son with Down syndrome – said he tricked her into buying complicated insurance contracts that left her unable to pay dental and home repair bills.
“His office was filled with things saying he was certified to help seniors,” said that client. “The only one he really helped was himself.”
Taking care of the finances of older Americans is a huge and potentially lucrative field, and the market is growing. Attracted by this market, many financial planners have shifted their focus to it – and bring widely varying attitudes and professional training to the consultation table. Training and certification in financial gerontology is now being offered by at least four groups.
The Securities and Exchange Commission does not regulate these groups – or any other groups that provide financial planning certification, for that matter. “The S.E.C. does not endorse any professional designation,” said Susan Wyderko, director of the office of investor education of the S.E.C.
The absence of government supervision is a problem, said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America. “There’s an opportunity for fraud,” he said, adding that older people need to be very careful about whom they trust for advice.
Regardless of any planner’s credentials, the S.E.C. and consumer organizations say the best approach is “buyers beware.”
Investors can learn how to check the background of a financial planner, including any disciplinary actions, at the S.E.C.’s website, www.sec.gov. Such background checks, along with a discussion about an advisor’s approach to investing, are well advised before signing up with a planner.
“We see too many investors who might have avoided trouble,” Ms. Wyderko of the S.E.C. said, “had they asked basic questions right from the start.”
Mr. Sell Bigpolicy is one of tens of thousands of financial advisers working hand-in-hand with insurance companies to market themselves to older Americans using impressive sounding credentials.
Many of these titles can be earned in just a few days from businesses concerned only with the bottom line and sound similar to established credentials that require years of study, difficult tests and extensive background checks.
Many graduates of these short programs say they only want to help older Americans. But they are frequently dispensing financial counsel that they are not qualified to offer, advocates for the elderly say. And thousands of them are paid by some of the country’s largest insurance companies to sell elderly clients complicated investments that some economists say most retirees should never own.
More than two dozen such programs now exist, and have enrolled more than 39,000 people over the last decade.
But some of the existing programs, which are often linked to insurance companies, have taught agents to use abusive sales techniques,
New and Bestselling AICPA CPE Self-Study Courses Best Sellers – March 2008 Avoiding Circular 230 Malpractice Traps and Common Abusive Small security,” said Jean Setzfand, director of financial security with AARP. “But a deferred annuity is almost always a bad idea for a retiree.”
Those concerns, however, have not stopped many insurance agents from aggressively selling deferred annuities.
Some of those agents have been trained by organizations that require only a few days of classroom instruction.
For instance, the 1,200 people who have enrolled in a different senior adviser program spent only four days in a classroom, according to a spokesman.
The organization which gave Mr. Sell Bigpolicy his credentials is a for-profit company that has trained 24,000 enrollees since it was started in 1997.
The company that gave Mr. Sell Bigpolicy his designation has a course that lasts three and a half days, according to recent participants, and includes uplifting lectures, overviews on the sociology of aging and exercises including peering through vision-blurring lenses to get a sense of how some clients’ eyesight can falter.
Regulatory authorities tend to be ultra critical of these programs.
“There are limitless phrases being coined to convey an expertise in senior finances,” said Massachusetts securities regulator William F. Galvin. “Most of them seem designed to trick seniors into listening to swindlers.”
Most insurance salespeople are honorable and are not swindlers. As in most lines of work, however, not everyone is honorable and does the correct thing.
A representative for the organization said the program’s courses and questions were written and evaluated by experts. In a statement, the company said its training was intended to supplement, not substitute for, professional credentials and education. The organization began asking titleholders in March to disclose to potential clients that designation alone does not imply expertise in financial, health or social matters.
Despite that disclaimer, the company has trained thousands of insurance agents and other financial advisors. And about 100 companies, many of them insurers, endorse the designation, said a spokesman for the group.
Soon after Mr. Sell Bigpolicy received his designation, Mr. Sell Bigpolicy started displaying it in ads and on letters inviting retirees to seminars over free chicken lunches, according to Massachusetts regulators.
At those meetings, Mr. Sell Bigpolicy told retirees that they were perilously close to financial calamity, according to Massachusetts regulators and attendees. He warned them that the stock market’s ability to offset inflation was “a big lie,” according to documents collected
New and Bestselling
ReplyDeleteAICPA CPE Self-Study Courses
Best Sellers – March 2008
Avoiding Circular 230 Malpractice Traps and Common Abusive Small
The following year, multiple insurers paid him commissions totaling $720,000 as his business with retirees soared.
But many of those sales came from steering older Americans into unwise investments, regulators contend in a lawsuit.
Mr. Sell Bigpolicy denies all wrongdoing, but one of his clients – a 73-year-old widow caring for a son with Down syndrome – said he tricked her into buying complicated insurance contracts that left her unable to pay dental and home repair bills.
“His office was filled with things saying he was certified to help seniors,” said that client. “The only one he really helped was himself.”
Taking care of the finances of older Americans is a huge and potentially lucrative field, and the market is growing. Attracted by this market, many financial planners have shifted their focus to it – and bring widely varying attitudes and professional training to the consultation table. Training and certification in financial gerontology is now being offered by at least four groups.
The Securities and Exchange Commission does not regulate these groups – or any other groups that provide financial planning certification, for that matter. “The S.E.C. does not endorse any professional designation,” said Susan Wyderko, director of the office of investor education of the S.E.C.
The absence of government supervision is a problem, said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America. “There’s an opportunity for fraud,” he said, adding that older people need to be very careful about whom they trust for advice.
Regardless of any planner’s credentials, the S.E.C. and consumer organizations say the best approach is “buyers beware.”
Investors can learn how to check the background of a financial planner, including any disciplinary actions, at the S.E.C.’s website, www.sec.gov. Such background checks, along with a discussion about an advisor’s approach to investing, are well advised before signing up with a planner.
“We see too many investors who might have avoided trouble,” Ms. Wyderko of the S.E.C. said, “had they asked basic questions right from the start.”
Mr. Sell Bigpolicy is one of tens of thousands of financial advisers working hand-in-hand with insurance companies to market themselves to older Americans using impressive sounding credentials.
Many of these titles can be earned in just a few days from businesses concerned only with the bottom line and sound similar to established credentials that require years of study, difficult tests and extensive background checks.
Many graduates of these short programs say they only want to help older Americans. But they are frequently dispensing financial counsel that they are not qualified to offer, advocates for the elderly say. And thousands of them are paid by some of the country’s largest insurance companies to sell elderly clients complicated investments that some economists say most retirees should never own.
More than two dozen such programs now exist, and have enrolled more than 39,000 people over the last decade.
But some of the existing programs, which are often linked to insurance companies, have taught agents to use abusive sales techniques,
New and Bestselling
ReplyDeleteAICPA CPE Self-Study Courses
Best Sellers – March 2008
Avoiding Circular 230 Malpractice Traps and Common Abusive Small security,” said Jean Setzfand, director of financial security with AARP. “But a deferred annuity is almost always a bad idea for a retiree.”
Those concerns, however, have not stopped many insurance agents from aggressively selling deferred annuities.
Some of those agents have been trained by organizations that require only a few days of classroom instruction.
For instance, the 1,200 people who have enrolled in a different senior adviser program spent only four days in a classroom, according to a spokesman.
The organization which gave Mr. Sell Bigpolicy his credentials is a for-profit company that has trained 24,000 enrollees since it was started in 1997.
The company that gave Mr. Sell Bigpolicy his designation has a course that lasts three and a half days, according to recent participants, and includes uplifting lectures, overviews on the sociology of aging and exercises including peering through vision-blurring lenses to get a sense of how some clients’ eyesight can falter.
Regulatory authorities tend to be ultra critical of these programs.
“There are limitless phrases being coined to convey an expertise in senior finances,” said Massachusetts securities regulator William F. Galvin. “Most of them seem designed to trick seniors into listening to swindlers.”
Most insurance salespeople are honorable and are not swindlers. As in most lines of work, however, not everyone is honorable and does the correct thing.
A representative for the organization said the program’s courses and questions were written and evaluated by experts. In a statement, the company said its training was intended to supplement, not substitute for, professional credentials and education. The organization began asking titleholders in March to disclose to potential clients that designation alone does not imply expertise in financial, health or social matters.
Despite that disclaimer, the company has trained thousands of insurance agents and other financial advisors. And about 100 companies, many of them insurers, endorse the designation, said a spokesman for the group.
Soon after Mr. Sell Bigpolicy received his designation, Mr. Sell Bigpolicy started displaying it in ads and on letters inviting retirees to seminars over free chicken lunches, according to Massachusetts regulators.
At those meetings, Mr. Sell Bigpolicy told retirees that they were perilously close to financial calamity, according to Massachusetts regulators and attendees. He warned them that the stock market’s ability to offset inflation was “a big lie,” according to documents collected