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SIPC ID THEFT WARNING - From SIPC: The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which maintains a special reserve fund authorized by Congress to help investors at failed brokerage firms, is cautioning investors about a new identity theft scam designed to extract confidential information and cash from unwary individuals. SIPC officials said they are investigating phony emails sent by a supposed "senior investment advisor" claiming to act for an actual SIPC member. In fact, the individual whose name appears in the emails has nothing to do with the scheme, and the actual brokerage firm named is likewise not involved in the fraudulent solicitation. The scheme involves an "insurance investment claim" supposedly to be made through the brokerage firm on behalf of SI...
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AMERICANS STILL SAVING FOR RETIREMENT - From ICI: Despite a year of turbulent financial markets, updated estimates show that Americans continued saving for retirement in 2007. Individual Retirement Account (IRA) assets and employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) plans, including 401(k) accounts, grew by 11 percent, the Investment Company Institute reported today, helping lift total U.S. retirement assets to $17.6 trillion at year-end 2007. ICI released The U.S. Retirement Market, 2007, the Institute's annual update on the resources that Americans have saved toward retirement. Assets held in employer-sponsored retirement plans represented 64 percent of total U.S. retirement assets in 2007, playing a key role in helping American workers accumulate retirement savings&n...
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UNDERSTANDING ASSET ALLOCATION - From PathToInvesting: Asset allocation is a strategy, advocated by modern portfolio theory, for reducing risk in your investment portfolio in order to maximize return. Specifically, asset allocation means dividing your assets among different broad categories of investments, called asset classes. Stock, bonds, and cash are examples of asset classes, as are real estate and derivatives such as options and futures contracts. Most financial services firms suggest particular asset allocations for specific groups of clients and fine-tune those allocations for individual investors. The asset allocation model - specifically the percentages of your investment principal allocated to each investment category you're using - that...
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ROTH VS. REGULAR 401(K) - From FPA: Conventional wisdom touts Roth 401(k) plans as the better choice for most taxpayers over regular 401(k) plans. But a paper in the July 2008 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning argues that not only are regular 401(k) accounts superior to Roth 401(k)s for all but the wealthiest of taxpayers, they'll remain superior even if future tax rates rise. In "Thinking About a Roth 401(k)? Think Again," Edward F. McQuarrie, Ph.D., a professor in the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif., challenges what he calls the "side fund" analyses often used to "prove" that Roth 401(k)s are superior to regular 401(k)s ...
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IDENTITY THEFT VICTIM SURVEY - From the FTC: The Federal Trade Commission plans to study the experiences of identity theft victims by conducting a survey of consumers who contacted the FTC after they were victimized. The survey will examine the remedies available to victims under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act). Among other things, the FACT Act gave consumers the right to place fraud alerts on their credit files if they are, or suspect they may become, victims of identity theft; block information on their credit reports that resulted from identity theft; and obtain copies of their credit reports free of charge. The survey results will help guide the FTC's efforts to enforce the law and educate consumers and the consumer reporting industry about t...
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REVERSE MORTGAGES AND SENIORS - If you are in your sixties, and own your home, chances are you have heard about reverse mortgages-or will soon. Some financial institutions are aggressively marketing reverse mortgages as an easy, cost-free way for retirees to finance lifestyles that can jeopardize their financial futures. A new podcast from FINRA tells you what you need to know to avoid a reversal of fortune ...
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SEC 'RETIRES' SCHEME - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has obtained emergency relief to stop an allegedly fraudulent scheme that raised over $7.2 million from investors who were told the money would be used in a business shredding and recycling used tires. However, as alleged in the SEC's complaint, the tire shredding equipment did not work, there was no reasonable basis for purported income and return figures, and the investors never received a dime from their investment ...
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401(K) DEBIT CARD INVESTOR ALERT - A number of companies are beginning to offer a "401(k) debit card" to employees who invest in 401(k) retirement programs.  A 401(k) debit card allows you to borrow up to $50,000 or 50% of the value of your retirement plan, whichever is less, through use of a debit card.  The Securities and Exchange Commission recently released an investor alert to make consumers aware of the factors they need to take into consideration before using one of these cards     ...
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RELAUNCH OF HELPFORINVESTORS.ORG - In order to make it as easy as possible for investors in trouble to find the help they need quickly, the 19-member Alliance For Investor Education (AIE) has launched an updated version of the "one-stop information shopping" site at http://www.HelpForInvestors.org to pull together 14 key links into a single Web page.  The easy-to-use list shows investors where to check out financial professionals, how to report investment fraud, the best help for dealing with other major problems - including broker bankruptcies, identity theft and 401(k) claims - and filing arbitration and mediation claims ...
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TAKING TOO MUCH CREDIT? - Not so long ago, those who faced a temporary financial setback, such as the loss of a job, a health emergency or an unexpected expense, could borrow or use credit to get by - and many American still do that. But while some Americans use credit as a safety net to weather life's occasional storms, others rely on it as a way to finance a lifestyle they otherwise could not afford. Troubling trends include investors leveraging or prematurely depleting their retirement savings, trading in their insurance policies in transactions known as "life settlements," and tapping their home equity through reverse mortgages. FINRA is concerned that some investors may be risking their most valuable assets in an effort to raise cash quickly-including those in or near retirement, who may not have time to recover their losses ...
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