Today’s ‘Alternative Investments’ Resemble ‘Limited Partnerships’ of the Past
Wall Street’s recent promotion of alternative investments should warrant serious concern among investors. It serves as an unpleasant example of history repeating itself. In the mid-1980s, Wall Street...
View ArticleVictims of Elder Investment Fraud – A Growing Problem
Investment scams targeting senior citizens continue to proliferate in Georgia and across the country. In fact, the Atlanta Journal Constitution recently published an article dealing with financial...
View ArticleAlternative Investments Begin to Haunt LPL Financial
LPL Financial, the country’s largest independent broker-dealer, is encountering serious problems involving its sales of alternative investments. LPL is also (not coincidentally) one of the country’s...
View ArticleAlternative Investments – Often Tainted by Sales Practice Abuses
Investors in search of fixed income have poured money into a variety of alternative investments, including nontraded real estate investment trusts (REITs). Alternative investments encompass most...
View ArticleLow Yields Push Investors into Very Risky Alternatives
The financial world continues to beat the drum warning investors about the risk of bonds. When interest rates rise (or when the market believes a significant rise in interest rates is imminent) bond...
View ArticleAlternative Investments are no Panacea
Why do investors continue to be enamored with hedge funds and other alternative investments? The press recently reported that institutional investors are expected to increase allocations to hedge funs...
View ArticleStructured Products Pose Major Risks for Investors
Danger lies ahead for investors in structured products. Structured products were once used only by institutions and sophisticated investors that had the education, training and experience needed to...
View ArticleInvestors are Gorging on Junk Bonds
Prices of “junk” bonds keep rising as investors continue to buy the riskier debt. Yields on junk bonds, which move inversely to bond prices, settled at a record low of 5.56% recently. Demand for junk...
View ArticleRegulators Focus on Complex Alternatives
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), as well as the SEC and state regulators, have announced that they are concerned about broker/adviser sales practices involving alternative...
View ArticleAlternative Investments – Are They All They Are Cracked Up To Be?
Rising interest rates may be death to traditional bonds and bond funds, but a number of alternative investment strategies allegedly designed to protect principal in a rising interest rate environment...
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