Pennsylvania Securities Commission Urges Adviser Background Checks

The Pennsylvania Securities Commission (PSC) said it offers background information of brokers and investment advisers for consumers.

Officials at the PSC said the Madoff Ponzi scheme and other high-profile breaches of trust by financial professionals are strong reminders of the need to check the background of financial professionals before trusting them with your money.

“Information is the number one tool that the public can have to protect them against fraud,” said Securities Commission Chairman Robert Lam, in a press release. “It’s an easy and simple process for any citizen to call our office and find out if a broker or security salesperson is licensed and in good standing. That’s a sound first step in thoroughly researching any investment opportunity, large or small.”

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The PSC said it offers investors extensive employment, disciplinary, and registration information about stockbrokers and investment advisers. Anyone can request a public report of background information on any stockbroker, brokerage firm, investment adviser, and investment adviser firm registered to do business in the state.

Consumers can receive background information by calling the PSC at 717.787.8061 or 1.800.600.0007. Callers should ask for all materials from the Central Registration Depository (CRD) about a brokerage firm or its agents. For similar information about an investment adviser firm or its representatives, callers should ask for all materials from the Investment Adviser Registration Depository (IARD).

The computerized national databases contain licensing and registration information on more than 650,000 stockbrokers and more than 260,000 investment advisers. Files include information about employment, examination and disciplinary histories, civil judgments, arbitration decisions, criminal convictions, bankruptcies, as well as customer complaints, disciplinary actions, arbitration and civil proceedings, according to the PSC.

FINRA recently unveiled an expansion of its BrokerCheck service to make records of final regulatory actions against brokers permanently available to the public (see “FINRA Proposes Disciplinary Disclosure of Former Brokers’).

 

How Optimistic are You?

See how what’s in your glass compares to your neighbor’s glass.

Northwestern Mutual recently introduced The Optimism Barometer to test how American optimism is faring. The tool tells you how your optimism matches up to the rest of the nation.

After completing six quick questions, the needle moves to show the individual’s optimism score, which is compared to the results of the rest of the U.S. population, based on research by the Northwestern Mutual. Along with the score, a profile of the people who share the same optimism score is shown—identifying potential crossover characteristics among similarly optimistic or pessimistic people, Northwestern Mutual said.

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For instance, if you score 6 out of 10 on the barometer, it lists similar traits of those other 21% of people with a similar level of optimism. People in that range “feel generally optimistic about their personal success” and are “happy, but not overjoyed, with their current circumstances.”

Don’t assume you know where you fall on the scale. Northwestern Mutual said in a release that “even for those who already see themselves as ‘glass-half-full’ or ‘glass-half-empty’ types, the Optimism Barometer can be revealing.”

The firm plans to track the data collected via the Optimism Barometer and identify general trends nationally and regionally. “It will be interesting to see how—or if—the optimism needle moves in the weeks, months and years ahead,” said Greg Oberland, Northwestern Mutual executive vice president, in the release.

Painfully Optimistic?

The Optimism Barometer was developed using questions from The American Reality Study, commissioned by Northwestern Mutual and conducted by Mathew Greenwald & Associates. The study confirmed the stereotype that, overall, Americans are pretty optimistic.

For instance, two-thirds of respondents (65%) agree with the idea that someday they will get to where they want to be in life, including one-quarter (27%) who strongly agree, according to the study. And even in today’s economic environment, most respondents (58%) at least somewhat agree that the American Dream is still attainable for most Americans.

With that said, only one-third of respondents feel they are doing a good job preparing financially for the future, but it’s at the top of the list of priority goals. In fact, 10% said saving or preparing for retirement is their number one goal, after being healthy (14%), being financial secure (12%), and professional success (12%). Let’s see if optimism can turn into action.

More information and results about the study, conducted in January, is available here.

 

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