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Money, Insurance & Investments for Seniors
Dubious Credentials May Scam Seniors Out of
Retirement Savings: Aging Committee
Senate aging committee looking at senior financial
advisor titles
 Aug. 31, 2007 – There seems to be reasonable doubt
that some of the titles being used by people to show they are qualified
to help senior citizens with their financial decisions are of little
value. The chairman of the Senate’s aging committee will conduct a
hearing on Wednesday, September 5, to examine some of the “questionable
practices used by so-called financial investment specialists.”
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Investors Being Fooled by Titles Easily Obtained: New York Times
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article in series by New York Times on how companies, people are trying to
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July 9, 2007 – Every senior citizen that has money
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should not be fooled by fancy sounding titles, like “Certified Senior
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on
Money, Insurance & Investments |
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Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Herb
Kohl (D-WI) says in a news release on the hearing that an investigation
by the aging committee has revealed that many of the designations that
have been cropping up represent limited or no value with respect to
advising seniors on financial matters.
Often these designations are obtained simply by
attending a weekend seminar and passing an open-book, multiple-choice
test.
The news release says people jump at these
easily-obtained titles in order to gain access to the retirement savings
of older Americans.
Many seniors targeted by salesmen using these
designations have lost their life savings because they were steered
toward investment instruments that were unsuitable for them, given their
retirement needs and life expectancy.
The hearing, “Advising Seniors About Their Money:
Who Is Qualified - and Who Is Not?,” will be in room 628 of the Dirksen
Senate Office Building in Washington at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
The hearing will be Webcast, beginning at 2 p.m.
EST, which can be reached by a link on the committee’s webpage:
www.aging.senate.gov. It is also available after the hearing.
Those scheduled to testify include:
● Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
Christopher Cox will offer testimony about the SEC’s relatively new
initiatives targeting senior investment fraud and will talk briefly
about the SEC’s upcoming Senior Investment Summit scheduled to take
place on September 10.
● Minnesota’s Attorney General, Lori Swanson,
will testify about her state’s efforts to eliminate senior investment
fraud, and will specifically discuss complaints filed by Minnesota
against companies that are inappropriately selling annuities to seniors.
● William Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, will speak about the broad range of violations his
office has encountered involving questionable senior financial advisor
designations. Massachusetts was the first state to conceive and impose
a regulatory structure to address this complex issue.
● Industry representatives will also be on hand
to discuss the meaning of these designations, and the impact they have
on the credibility of their business.
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