FINRA Launches Podcast Series

FINRA today launched a series of Investor Podcasts that the agency said “provide clear, unbiased information on a variety of financial issues in an easily accessible format.’

You can download or subscribe to the podcasts from FINRA’s Web site (www.finra.org) or on iTunes. New podcasts will be added every month.

“Since FINRA doesn’t sell a thing and our job is to protect investors, FINRA’s Investor Podcasts deliver nothing but the facts the public needs to know in order to make informed investment decisions,’ said John Gannon, FINRA’s senior vice president for Investor Education, in a press release. “FINRA is committed to investor education because we believe that education is the most potent form of investor protection.’

The first three installments of the podcast series are now online:

• “Protect Your Online Brokerage Account” outlines specific steps investors can take to prevent the theft of their personal financial information when investing online.
• “Reverse Mortgages: Avoiding a Reversal of Fortune” helps homeowners carefully weigh all of their options before tapping into their home equity.
• “Putting too Much Stock in your Company—a 401(k) Problem” spells out the difficulties employees may face if they put too much of their retirement savings in their company’s stock.

FINRA said upcoming podcasts will outline the steps investors can take to protect themselves from so-called “Free Lunch’ investment seminars, help investors better understand how to use FINRA’s Dispute Resolution program, and demonstrate how the costs associated with different classes of mutual fund shares can impact the value of those investments.