Is your financial advisor stealing from you?
What are some signs that your financial advisor is stealing from you?
- They don’t provide timely statements of activity on your account.
- They give you excuses if you want to move money around.
- They can’t explain withdrawals from your account.
- They can’t provide third party account statements to support internally reported information.
Related Horror Stories
Giving Control of $100K and Earning Less Than Their Fees
I once gave a major fund control of 100G for one year. I got a 2% return. They made more money in fees than I did in ROI. Meanwhile, the rest of my money invested in index funds earned 10%+ after fees.
Churned and burned
Some time in the past, a “financial advisor” convinced me that I could make a lot of money trading commodities. Wrong! I figured out he was just “churning” me (putting me into and out of too many positions, just to earn the commission), and I closed the account, buy not until he lost 80% of my money in less than a year!
The “I Like to Churn” Advisor
And no, we’re not talking about churning butter. I was talking with another potential client who was considering switching advisors and although they lived in a small town in the Midwest, they had somehow started doing business with an advisor out of New York. They had been with this person for several years and had a hunch that things weren’t all what they seemed.
They thought perhaps the advisor was selling funds and buying other funds just for the sake of earning a commission, and since I was the guy they were considering hiring, they were interested in me taking a look. After reviewing their account statements and the trade confirmations, it was quickly and easily obvious that was what was being done.
Sure enough, the advisor was selling A-Shares; another type of mutual fund, and turning right around and buying other B-Shares, sometimes it was the exact same fund. It made no sense other than the fact that the advisor made a commission on each of those trades.
Lesson Learned: If you are using an advisor on a commission-based relationship, be on the lookout for an influx of unusual trade confirmations. If you see a lot of activity, it might be worth inquiring about.
Share Your Story
Have you had a negative experience with a human financial advisor or other human “financial expert”? Share your story to help others avoid similar issues. Together, we can shed light on the importance of reliable, unbiased financial advice - its been a big motivator for us to build PortfolioPilot.
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