The Wall Street Journal did a piece on troubled stockbrokers this week. It shows how certain areas of the country are loaded with brokers that prey on the elderly. They offer a free lunch or dinner followed by a high pressured sales pitch. Most often these charlatans are pushing annuities.
A couple I know were hounded for months following the dinner they attended. They also had to endure a follow-up meeting at their home. The stockbrokers in my example were friendly and seemed nice to my friends. They mailed me the stockbrokers’ proposal. After I dissected the 1,000 page prospectus, I let them know it was ridden with fees, including massive surrender charges for cancelling within seven years. And the only way they got the guys to stop calling was to file a complaint. Stay away from these “plate lickers” and avoid financial indigestion.
