Tough Times Brings Out Bad Behavior: Investment Advisors

Tough times brings about bad behavior. We recently saw another example of that with the recent article in the Kalamazoo Gazette about Fabian and Associates and issues regarding defrauding his clients. We are familiar of this occurring in the past with previous companies including problems on the east coast with Bernie Maddof. If you go further south to Texas, you run across more issues with two investment brokers stealing $150 million in trade profits from their investors. Reporting stock broker fraud is becoming an issue in and of itself. The biggest question for everyone is how do we protect ourselves from this stock broker fraud and how do we know that our financial advisor is in good standing. There is an easy to check on the status of your advisor, both on a national level and a state level. The following web sites can assist you with this process:

www.finra.org/brokercheck or www.michigan.gov/ofis

When it comes to any planning it is important that you check out the professional that you use. Even for attorneys, it is important to make sure that they are in good standing and should always ask that attorney any questions that you have to confirm that they are in good standing and are not facing any suspensions. You can check out the standing of an attorney and any substantiated claims that are brought against them by calling the State Bar of Michigan.