America’s banking institutions got rich exploiting ordinary people. The mortgage banks that funded abusive loans. The investment banks that made billions of dollars leveraging these loans for fees. The commercial banks that drowned you in credit-card fees and abusive subprime cards. They ran the economy over the cliff, taking your jobs and savings with them. [...]
New credit card rules take effect Monday, to block some of the banks’ most abusive practices. If you’re not careful, however, you might find yourself agreeing to be abused again. There will be campaigns to get you, voluntarily, to take one of the nastier fees back onto your account.
I’m talking about the over-limit fees that [...]
If you’re unhappy with your stockbroker, and move your account to another firm, don’t sell your securities before you leave. That gives the bad broker a huge good-bye present, in the form of a mountain of sales commissions. My friend Tom Benson, who analyzes customer accounts for improprieties, says he’s currently handling a case where [...]
Hang on to your wallet, here come the IRA sharks. An email just landed in my mailbox, blaring “ROTH CONVERSIONS ARE HOT! Millions of Dollars are Being Transferred! HUGE commissions are being generated!” Sucker lists are circulating. The next phone call or snail mail you get might be from a “financial adviser,” urging you to [...]
Roth Individual Retirement Accounts are big news this year. For the first time, anyone with a traditional IRA can convert it into a Roth. You can spread the tax effects of a 2010 conversion over two years. And conversion sidesteps the usual 10 percent penalty on funds withdrawn from traditional IRAs prior to age 59 [...]
