tailieunhanh - Investment Products and Sales Practices Commonly Used to Defraud Seniors: Stories from the Front Line

When investing in charitable annuities, investors should ensure that the firm or individual is representing a legitimate charitable organization and that the organization is fully aware of the salesperson’s activities. In an increasing number of cases, a solicitor will pose as an employee of a charitable organization and offer customers the opportunity to invest money that will purportedly provide monthly annuity payments to both the investor and the charity. Unbeknownst to the investor, a significant portion of the funds are never invested for charitable purposes, but instead are directly deposited in the solicitor’s personal account. The following are examples. | Investor Alert Investment Products and Sales Practices Commonly Used to Defraud Seniors Stories from the Front Line In recent years senior citizens have increasingly become targets of financial abuse and fraud. Approximately 5 million senior citizens become victims of financial abuse and fraud each year. This trend is related to the high amount of wealth held by older investors as nearly one-third of all . investors are between 50 and 64 years of age. It is particularly devastating when older investors are defrauded because they are generally beyond or near the end of their earning years and as a result have little or no ability to rebuild their retirement funds. The Securities and Exchange Commission SEC the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority FINRA and the North American Securities Administrators Association NASAA which represents state securities regulators are seeing a number of investment products and sales practices recurring in schemes to defraud older investors. The following are examples of products and practices that have triggered SEC FINRA and or state securities regulator investigations in recent months. Investors should exercise caution before investing in these types of products. Charitable Gift Annuities When investing in charitable annuities investors should ensure that the firm or individual is representing a legitimate charitable organization and that the organization is fully aware of the salesperson s activities. In an increasing number of cases a solicitor will pose as an employee of a charitable organization and offer customers the opportunity to invest money that will purportedly provide monthly annuity payments to both the investor and the charity. Unbeknownst to the investor a significant portion of the funds are never invested for charitable purposes but instead are directly deposited in the solicitor s personal account. The following are examples of such schemes that have triggered SEC and state securities regulator investigations