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Is Any Publicity Good Publicity?

1/21/2017

Abby Lee Miller of "Dance Moms" fame. Photo courtesy Getty Images.

Local "Dance Moms" star Abby Lee Miller is finding out the hard way that her TV face and scheming ways are not going to save her from federal prosecution.

Miller, a reality TV star, declared bankruptcy in order to pay less on her outstanding debt. The thing with bankruptcy is that you have to be honest about your income, and Miller thought that she could get away with sneaking into the country bundles of cash from overseas and failing to report significant income from TV deals and merchandise sales.

Apparently, Miller was not thinking that her own bankruptcy judge also watches TV!

...Judge Agresti showed plenty of irritation at Ms. Miller as her schemes became apparent, Mr. Melucci said. At one hearing in 2012, he found out she hadn’t revealed her income from 2012 and had also struck TV show contracts without disclosing them in an amended bankruptcy plan. After she complained that she didn’t even know about the contracts, he’d had enough...

Judge Agresti discovered Ms. Miller’s fraud by chance. He said he was channel-surfing one night, came across her TV performances and realized she had more money than she was revealing in her Chapter 11 filings.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said she tried to hide about $755,000 from the bankruptcy trustee.

Miller's response is, of course, a classic. In an email to a compatriot, which was later used as evidence to show her contempt for the law, Miller wrote:

"The judge was a dick! He hates me…I’m paying Everyone I owe 100% back in one big check! Who does that! Nobody in bankruptcy! But he won’t just say look I hate you and I don’t want to see u again pay everybody and go! Now my Pgh atty are making Collins ave and the entertainment attorney jump through hoops!”

I guess I'll let Miller herself close this out:

Image courtesy Perez Hilton.

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Trusting Your Retirement Savings to a Salesman

1/13/2017

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Should financial advisers make protecting your money their number one goal?

This is not a rhetorical question. The fiduciary standard is a legal standard to which certain people who we trust with important responsibilities are held. It means “a person or organization that owes to another the duties of good faith and trust. The highest legal duty of one party to another, it also involves being bound ethically to act in the other's best interests.”
Would you be surprised that the dollars you are saving from your paycheck every month may well be going to someone who is not a fiduciary? Do you know the difference between a “fiduciary” and a mere salesman, who seeks to peddle whatever is “suitable” to clients under the current standard?

There is a powerful tug of war between two forces – consumer advocates and regulators on the one side, and the financial industry and big business on the other. The government under the Obama administration wants to make sure that financial advisers are held to a fiduciary standard, meaning that they must make their clients' (meaning your) interests their number one concern. Surprised that this isn't already the case?

Read this excerpt from an industry news source:

“The business interest group would like the [incoming Trump] administration to halt and then replace the regulation that requires advisers act in the best interests of clients in retirement accounts. […]

The regulation, which would require financial advisers to act in the best interests of their clients in retirement accounts, was finalized last spring and has an initial implementation deadline of April 10.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday that that timeline is unrealistic for a rule it argues is too expensive and burdensome for advisers and needs to be overhauled.”

Well, you see, financial advisers often get paid kickbacks commissions on the products they sell. They also rake in fees for your buying their products – on top of these products' own fees.

So when you are faced with issues like whether a “$100,000.00 IDS Life Flexible Premium Adjustable Whole Life Insurance Policy” is a good idea, do you really want a salesman or a fiduciary explaining its nuances, and the many pages of single-spaced type and small print? Again, this is not a rhetorical question. Don't find out the hard way like the Richards family did.

Cynics might say that just because advisers are held to a higher standard, it will not change the fact that they will still face conflicts of interest and might look out to pad their own pockets at their clients' expense.

True, I say, but it will make these folks a whole easier to be held accountable by ordinary consumers who, for better or worse, trust the nice man in the suit who made a house call. Also, you know the fiduciary rule is a good idea when even the financial industry's real remaining excuse is that the rule is “too expensive and burdensome” to comply with (Translation: Financial advisers will make less money off of their clients' hard earned savings). Now that's an expense and burden Americans can live with.

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Is Any Publicity Good Publicity?

Trusting Your Retirement Savings to a Salesman

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﻿Is Any Publicity Good Publicity?

Trusting Your Retirement Savings to a Salesman

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Is Any Publicity Good Publicity?