Check Out your Financial Advisor - Before You Invest!

 The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has created a website to help people check the registration, license, and disciplinary history of financial professionals. This website is called CFTC Smartcheck and it describes 6 steps to take before making an investment, including:

• Determine if your financial advisor is registered with the CFTC or the NFA, using the website's BASIC search tool.
• Use the BrokerCheck tool to see if the financial professional is registered with the SEC or FINRA.
• Check to see if the professional has a CFTC disciplinary history.

 In addition to these search tools, the Smartcheck website has investor news, tips to avoid fraud, and interactive videos about common investment scenarios. You can also report any sketchy offers or shifty sales tactics as a confidential tip here.

Safe Investing For Seniors

The Securities and Exchange Commission provides a webpage with a lot of information to help Seniors invest their money wisely.  This web page has links to information about what questions to ask when considering investments and how to avoid internet scams and affinity fraud. There is also information about investment products such as variable annuities, equity-linked CDs, promissory notes, callable CDs, ultra-short bond funds, and viatical settlements. In addition, they have published a pamphlet called "A Guide For Seniors: Protect Yourself Against Investment Fraud". You can access this pamphlet online here or pick up a print copy at your local Pasco County Library branch.

Want information about a particular investment opportunity?
You can investigate the investment and the investment firm with these resources:

• You can find out whether the investment is registered by using the EDGAR database.
• You can find information about an investment firm or a broker by using the FINRA BrokerCheck.
• You can investigate investment adviser firms on the SEC website here.

For information about "free lunch investment seminars", click here for a previous blog post.