Retail mutual fund shares are classes A, B and C. They differ in the amounts of internal 12-b1 fees and also on the loads, or sales charges. Read about it here: The ABCs of Mutual Funds. There is another class offered for many funds: Class I, which stands for institutional class. Class I shares are
A Pernicious and Pervasive Culture of Corruption
U.S. District Court Judge Jack Weinstein when sentencing a former broker for securities fraud said:
"’What becomes evident in a trial like the present one, and in recent mortgage fraud cases, is how pernicious and pervasive is the culture of corruption’ in the securities industry."
Daniel Solin writing for Daily Finance on January 24
MISPLACED FAITH?
The January 24, 2010 Lancaster Sunday News front page headline is "MISPLACED FAITH?".
Gil Smart’s article (read it here) explained an investment scam that looks like an Amish version of the Madoff debacle. Full details have yet to emerge, but it appears that the interest rates promised by John M. Sensenig were simply too good to be
UBS sued by 77 year-old woman
UBS is in trouble again. This time for inducing a 77 year old Hong Kong woman who doesn’t speak English and who never finished primary school to sign documents in English, one making her a "professional investor" under SEC regulations. They sold her an equity accumulator – a very complicated contract not unlike the fancy
Why We Fall for Financial Scams
Stephen Greenspan has written an article entitled Why We Keep Falling for Financial Scams, published in the Wall Street Journal on Janury 3, 2009. See the article here.
Greenspan writes:
"There are few areas where skepticism is more important than how one invests one’s life savings. Yet intelligent and educated people, some of them naïve
Love Potion No. 9? For the Financial Crisis?
Neil Hendershot has a terrific post on his blog called "Liquid Trust" or "Living Trustworthiness"? With tongue in cheek, he talks of buying trust in a bottle (like Love Potion No. 9) to solve the nation’s financial crsis.
"Liquid Trust is the world’s first Trust Enhancing Body Spray, specially formulated to increase
Money Fund “Breaks the Buck”
Reserve Primary Fund (Ticker RFIXX), a money market fund with $62 billion in net assets, today wrote off $785 million of debt issued by the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers, reports Christopher Condon for Bloomberg.com.
The Board of Trustees of The Reserve Primary Fund issued a news release today (September 16, 2008). In the release they stated
Greenspan Cheers Us Up
Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers. What’s next?
And what about all the trust portfolios that are headed down? Remember, the standard of care under the Prudent Investor Act is not measured by portfolio performance – it is a standard of trustee conduct measured by how the trustee monitors, responds, and follows
Does FDIC cover my bank deposits?
The failure of IndyMac Bank has caused many bank depositors to ask questions about FDIC – the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. According to FDIC 10,000 IndyMac customers could lose as much as $500 million in uninsured deposits. FDIC will pay claims between $4 billion and $8 billion to insured depositors. FDIC representatives predict that there
Hershey’s Kiss-Off
The goings on at Hershey Company are always of great local interest here in Central Pennsylvania. But of more than local interest is the litigation surrounding the management of the Milton Hershey School Trust and the attempt to sell the company.
Jonathan Klick of Florida State University College of Law and Robert H. Sitkoff of