A secure retirement may depend upon investors knowing which type of investment agent must work FOR the investor, and which is allowed to work COUNTER-TO the interests of investors. (fiduciary standard vs suitability standard)
What if investments in some of the most trusted financial institutions were in a "confidence game", and you were the only person who was NOT aware of the game? This is about 21st Century financial literacy.
Like a shell game on the the streets of New York, where the locals had a team of con- artists, working in a team to “work” the tourists...
1. What if a sophisticated confidence game could be played upon small investors by banks, investment dealers, life insurance and mutual fund sellers?
2. What if people who said they were licensed professional advisors where nothing more than salespeople, paid to "gather assets” and/or "sell products" on commission?
3. What if the real duty of care to the investor, were carefully hidden from each investor, in the manner similar to how the license and registration of the financial expert is often hidden? What if that allowed them to pretend to sell you the best investments in the world, while actually selling you "investment products” in their better interests?
4. What if a person can be licensed to sell investment products offered by a dealer in 90 days, and claiming to be a financial professional?
5. What if the difference between a high quality investment, and a packaged and puffed investment “product” was large enough to cut your future retirement savings capital by more than half?
6. Now imagine that those who “police" or “regulate" the financial services industry were hand-picked and paid only by the financial services industry? What if one could earn $700,000 or more by pretending to be one of those government regulators? Top jobs in this area typically go to the most proven “team players”.
7. What if there are thousands of regulatory employees, cloaked as policing agencies claiming to protect the public from the financial industry, while behind the curtains they were funded by the industry that they were pretending to police?
8. What if they routinely ignore public protective laws of the Securities Act in your jurisdiction, and regularly go as far as to sell “exemptions” to our laws, to financial firms, without even giving a warning to the investors in these offerings.
9. Now imagine that this industry had thousands of corporate lawyers at hand, and another league or two of politicians and/or political influencers at their disposal.
What an amazing thing to discover that kind of game. A highly sophisticated network of “confidence work” beyond the public eye. It is a truly amazing show to watch, or as my father used to say, that would be "a fine how do you do”. Let me share it with you!
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