TerryJ2
Well-Known Member
Well, as if things weren't bad enough (you all offered me such wonderful support on the general board the other day) ... my broker was on the front page of the local paper, being investigated by FINRA, a branch under the SEC.
I had just spent weeks gathering up all of my 81-yr-old cousin's statements and giving them all to this guy and his firm, thinking I was simplifying things but putting her money right where ours was.
He is going through a messy divorce, and 2 yrs ago, half his firm left, and we assumed it was because of their disapproval of his affair(s). Turns out there was more to it ... financially ...
and after husband and I decided to change brokers, my cousin's new broker gasped when I gave him a thick disclosure manual (seriously, the size of a dictionary) that had a disclosure of the same group that had placed the complaint with-the feds. I had taken a chunk of my cousin's $ and placed it in this questionable fund for 3 yrs, having been told it was like a fast growing CD. I can't believe I didn't see it (although who reads every page of those things?)
Same exact fund that was on the front page.
Still, why did I let them strong-arm me into investing even a penny of her money into something that wasn't 100% safe? She's 81 and needs to be totally liquid. I remember saying, "Can't I sign for 1 yr?"
"No." "Two?" "No, it's 3 yrs. But it's 9%."
Well, it left enough money for her to live off of for 3 yrs ... we had it all figured out. And if it had been something outrageous like a 50% return, I would have flat-out said NO. But 9% sounded reasonable.
Except that it was the broker's own product. His name all over it. No one else's name. Dumb, dumb, dumb. d*G I am the most stupid person on the planet.
I cannot imagine the gall of a group of guys (3 that I can name, and I will, in a complaint to FINRA--I already hired a lawyer) to use my cousin's $ and bamboozle me into giving them more--CASH--, when they didn't have enough to liquidate the accts they already serviced.
I am so stupid. I have been beating myself up over this all week.
I am ready to strangle them.
Even if it turns out to be an "okay" fund (which I doubt), if I withdraw early, they can charge me an arm and a leg to get out of it. I looked up early withdrawals for "normal" CDs just to get an idea.
Meanwhile, the majority (I think--right now I'm not sure of anything) of my cousin's and our funds were in "regular" investments, such as American Cap Pace, Wells Fargo, etc. and we have never had a problem liquidating, say, our 529 for our daughter's college fund.
So those will transfer to our new brokers Mon and Tues. Those will be fine.
This past week, I interviewed several, did research online (3 a.m., thankyouverymuch, because I couldn't sleep) and deliberately chose two unrelated brokers because I will never again put my cousin's money where ours is.
She was a very good sport about it the other day ... sat at the table at the atty's ofc, scarfing down chocolates, all caught up in the drama of the front page story, so naive that she saw the expression on my face and said, "Oh, darling, any money of mine is yours to have. You never told me you needed money."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhh!
I picked up difficult child from school and he was so combative he was even rude to my cousin. He insisted he come in to the rehab ctr with-us "Because if I come in, you won't stay long like you always do."
He harrassed me all the way home and I was so fragile from everything else, all of a sudden, I coudln't function any more. I was stopped at a red light at a very busy intersection and I started to cry. I put the car in park, turned on the flashers, took off my seatbelt and opened the door. (I was parked next to a median, in the left turn lane, but difficult child hadn't noticed that.)
He freaked out, immediately began to apologize, and asked me where I was going. I just said "Out," and he said, "But who will drive the car?"
I settled back down just as the light turned green, and he spent the next few min telling me what a wonderful mother I was, taking care of him since he was a baby, buying him things, and he didn't really mean to be mean to me ...
I went straight to bed.
The two of us are much better today.
I am waffling between hoping that my broker magically comes up with-our funds, or that he crashes his Bentley into his Jaguar in the driveway. Or that the feds freeze all of our funds, because even though we won't have access, at least it will all be safe.
Oh, by the way, I went to a therapist. She spent the first 10 min talking about a local hospital that fired the anesthesiology group and hired a new one, which was bogus, enraging surgeons, who went to the press and said they were referring all their pts to a competing hospital ... front page news ... and she was trying to come up with-ideas about a psychiatric for my cousin, but said the only good one, who was a neurologist and geriatric psychiatric, was just fired by the same hospital ...
Very interesting conversation but didn't help me much ...
I now have appts for difficult child with-a new psychiatrist, because the old one is too status quo, and for my cousin, but both appts are a wk or 2 away ...
I hate my life.
I had just spent weeks gathering up all of my 81-yr-old cousin's statements and giving them all to this guy and his firm, thinking I was simplifying things but putting her money right where ours was.
He is going through a messy divorce, and 2 yrs ago, half his firm left, and we assumed it was because of their disapproval of his affair(s). Turns out there was more to it ... financially ...
and after husband and I decided to change brokers, my cousin's new broker gasped when I gave him a thick disclosure manual (seriously, the size of a dictionary) that had a disclosure of the same group that had placed the complaint with-the feds. I had taken a chunk of my cousin's $ and placed it in this questionable fund for 3 yrs, having been told it was like a fast growing CD. I can't believe I didn't see it (although who reads every page of those things?)
Same exact fund that was on the front page.
Still, why did I let them strong-arm me into investing even a penny of her money into something that wasn't 100% safe? She's 81 and needs to be totally liquid. I remember saying, "Can't I sign for 1 yr?"
"No." "Two?" "No, it's 3 yrs. But it's 9%."
Well, it left enough money for her to live off of for 3 yrs ... we had it all figured out. And if it had been something outrageous like a 50% return, I would have flat-out said NO. But 9% sounded reasonable.
Except that it was the broker's own product. His name all over it. No one else's name. Dumb, dumb, dumb. d*G I am the most stupid person on the planet.
I cannot imagine the gall of a group of guys (3 that I can name, and I will, in a complaint to FINRA--I already hired a lawyer) to use my cousin's $ and bamboozle me into giving them more--CASH--, when they didn't have enough to liquidate the accts they already serviced.
I am so stupid. I have been beating myself up over this all week.
I am ready to strangle them.
Even if it turns out to be an "okay" fund (which I doubt), if I withdraw early, they can charge me an arm and a leg to get out of it. I looked up early withdrawals for "normal" CDs just to get an idea.
Meanwhile, the majority (I think--right now I'm not sure of anything) of my cousin's and our funds were in "regular" investments, such as American Cap Pace, Wells Fargo, etc. and we have never had a problem liquidating, say, our 529 for our daughter's college fund.
So those will transfer to our new brokers Mon and Tues. Those will be fine.
This past week, I interviewed several, did research online (3 a.m., thankyouverymuch, because I couldn't sleep) and deliberately chose two unrelated brokers because I will never again put my cousin's money where ours is.
She was a very good sport about it the other day ... sat at the table at the atty's ofc, scarfing down chocolates, all caught up in the drama of the front page story, so naive that she saw the expression on my face and said, "Oh, darling, any money of mine is yours to have. You never told me you needed money."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhh!
I picked up difficult child from school and he was so combative he was even rude to my cousin. He insisted he come in to the rehab ctr with-us "Because if I come in, you won't stay long like you always do."
He harrassed me all the way home and I was so fragile from everything else, all of a sudden, I coudln't function any more. I was stopped at a red light at a very busy intersection and I started to cry. I put the car in park, turned on the flashers, took off my seatbelt and opened the door. (I was parked next to a median, in the left turn lane, but difficult child hadn't noticed that.)
He freaked out, immediately began to apologize, and asked me where I was going. I just said "Out," and he said, "But who will drive the car?"
I settled back down just as the light turned green, and he spent the next few min telling me what a wonderful mother I was, taking care of him since he was a baby, buying him things, and he didn't really mean to be mean to me ...
I went straight to bed.
The two of us are much better today.
I am waffling between hoping that my broker magically comes up with-our funds, or that he crashes his Bentley into his Jaguar in the driveway. Or that the feds freeze all of our funds, because even though we won't have access, at least it will all be safe.
Oh, by the way, I went to a therapist. She spent the first 10 min talking about a local hospital that fired the anesthesiology group and hired a new one, which was bogus, enraging surgeons, who went to the press and said they were referring all their pts to a competing hospital ... front page news ... and she was trying to come up with-ideas about a psychiatric for my cousin, but said the only good one, who was a neurologist and geriatric psychiatric, was just fired by the same hospital ...
Very interesting conversation but didn't help me much ...
I now have appts for difficult child with-a new psychiatrist, because the old one is too status quo, and for my cousin, but both appts are a wk or 2 away ...
I hate my life.
