Month: May 2016
Why Is The EBSA Sleeping With the Enemy?
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Labor responsible for administering, regulating and enforcing the provisions of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). (Taken from wikipedia.org.) According to the Department of Labor website, “The Employee Retirement…
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Principal Admits They Lied To Investors in $4.4 Million Theft
For almost a decade, Principal Financial Group, Inc., lied to plan sponsors by under-reporting advisor commissions that were paid by the retirement plans, and by asking advisors to fabricate fake expense vouchers to match those commission amounts, according to a 2007 investigation by the Connecticut Attorney General’s office. In Principal’s own…
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Risk vs. Reward
Risk vs. Reward…. If you are following this website, you are a fiduciary. You are also either a friend, or victim, of Principal. Advisors will soon be considered fiduciaries under the new Conflict of Interest ruling announced by the Department of Labor. As such, there can be severe penalties attached…
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Researching The Principal U.S. Property Separate Account
In a recent post, I described how Principal Financial lied to plan sponsors concerning compensation paid to brokers for recommending Principal Group Annuities to their customers. During the investigation by the Connecticut Attorney General’s office, Principal perpetrators were quoted as stating the arrangements were fashioned as “a means of adding…
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Truth or Lies?
Truth… Hundreds of financial articles and videos on the internet explain what is wrong with the 401k defined contribution program, but no-one knows how to fix it. There is a huge sinkhole of corruption in the sale of variable annuities for 401k plans in the insurance industry that needs to…
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Undisclosed Compensation… An “Upfront” Crime
Dan Houston is the President and CEO of Principal Financial Group, Inc., but in 2007, he was the Executive Vice President of Retirement and Investor Services, a division of Principal. In 2007, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal caused an investigation to be made of Principal pursuant to the Connecticut Antitrust…
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A New Era in Compliance & Ethics…
The Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA) was created in 1996 in response to a crisis of damaged consumer trust and confidence in the insurance industry. An independent, nonprofit organization, IMSA had more than 200 voluntary members that lead the insurance industry in promoting high ethical standards in the sale of…
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Fiduciary Failure in the 401k World…
Chris Carosa recently published a post in Fiduciary News concerning the unclear explanation of excessive fees in the new DOL Conflict-Of-Interest Rule. Both the term Excessive and Fees share multiple meanings in the investment community and can take on several forms. For example, you may be a fiduciary adviser with…
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Clockwork Orange… A Metaphor for Change
Anthony Burgess, the author of “A Clockwork Orange,” was once asked why he used the phrase “a clockwork orange” in his book to describe young thugs. His response was “…the possibility of getting these young thugs, not putting them in jail because jails are needed for professional criminals. But…