After a nearly four-month delay, the Trump administration has decided to allow the Department of Labor to move forward with a rule intended to stop investment advisors from pushing customers into products that primarily benefit the advisor. However, some question whether the administration will actually enforce this rule. [More]
investments
Investment Advisors Will Be Required To Work In Your Best Interest, But Will Trump Administration Enforce Rule?
By 5.23.17 — Updated: 5.25.17
Investors Betting That Mall Owners Will Default On Mortgages
By 3.14.17
Nearly a decade ago, some investors scored big payouts by predicting that the housing boom’s glut of mortgage-backed securities would turn out to be toxic. Now there are investors betting on the hope that more mall owners will soon be letting their properties go into foreclosure. [More]
Comcast Doubles Down On Buzzfeed With Another $200M Investment
By 10.21.16
In its continuing quest to take over the content world, Comcast is once again splashing out with a big investment into journalism and listicle juggernaut BuzzFeed. [More]
Kobe Bryant Launching $100M Venture-Capital Fund With Investor Pal
By 8.22.16
Newly retired NBA player Kobe Bryant is moving from scoring baskets to scoring deals with his new career title: venture capitalist. [More]
Winner Of The Jet Signup Contest Spent $18K On Ads, Prize Now Worth Millions
By 8.8.16
Back at the beginning of 2015, before it launched to the public, e-commerce site Jet used a contest to encourage people to refer others to the site. The winner was a Pennsylvania man who spent $18,000 on online ads, recruiting new Jet users through sites like Facebook and Swagbucks. He received 100,000 shares in the company, which he couldn’t cash in until the company went public or were sold. Today, the company announced that Walmart acquired it for $3.3 billion. [More]
Groupon Still Exists, Gets $250M Investment From Comcast
By 4.4.16
Last fall, things didn’t look good for Groupon — the deal site that three of your friends wouldn’t shut up about in 2011. Its stock price had sunk to a new low as it fired more than 1,000 employees and closed operations in six countries and Puerto Rico. But the company got some good news today in the form of a $250 million investment/partnership with Comcast. [More]
JPMorgan Chase To Pay $367 Million For Secretly Steering Clients To Investments That Benefited Bank
By 12.18.15
When you pay a bank’s investment adviser to help you put your money in a smart place, you would hope that they would steer you to a product that best serves your interest. You’d also hope that if an investment product benefited the bank, this information would be clearly disclosed. But that’s not always the case, which is why JPMorgan Chase has to pay penalties totaling $367 million. [More]
Citi To Return Additional $4.5M In Overcharged Fees To 15,000 Investment Account Holders
By 8.19.15
Last October, Citigroup agreed to return a total of $16 million to nearly 30,000 customers after an investigation by the state of New York found the company overcharged some customers advisory fees on their investment accounts. While that redress seems pretty hefty, it wasn’t enough, with the financial institution now agreeing to pay an additional $4.5 million to another 15,000 account holders. [More]
Buying Out Life Insurance Policies Is A Bad Investment When People Keep Living
By 6.3.15
Earlier this year, a company called Life Partners declared bankruptcy. They had a pretty simple business model: they brought together investors and dying people in need of cash. The investors put up some money and paid the life insurance premiums, collecting the insurance payout when the person eventually dies. This business model doesn’t work out for the investor, though, when the insured person lives longer than anticipated. [More]
NFL Linebacker Files $20M Lawsuit Against Bank Of America For Alleged Fraud
By 4.1.15
When looking to manage one’s money, it wouldn’t be unusual to seek advice from the financial professionals at one of the country’s largest banks. But an NFL linebacker says his decision to rely on Bank of America to manage his finances cost him millions of dollars and led to the closing of his budding restaurant business. [More]
Morgan Stanley To Pay $2.6B To Settle Charges Of Selling Troubled Mortgages Leading Up To The Financial Crisis
By 2.26.15
The Department of Justice has struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Morgan Stanley in what is expected to be one of the last major steps in resolving investigations related to banks’ roles in the subprime mortgage crisis. [More]
Proposed Rules Target Fees Collected By Retirement Financial Advisers, Brokers
By 2.23.15
When visiting a financial adviser for consultation about retirement savings one might assume those counselors have their best interests in mind. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. To better ensure consultants are working for consumers and not for fees, the Labor Department will propose new rules to increase standards for brokers who recommend investments for retirement accounts. [More]
Bill Would Allow 529 College Savings Plan Investors To Change Investments Twice A Year
By 12.11.14
With less disposable income and difficulty meeting the ever rising cost of tuition, parents often have a tough time saving for their child’s future education. A law poised to make its way though Congress aims to give parents using certain college savings plans more flexibility in their investments. [More]
SEC Fines Brokerage Firm $2M For Improper Use Of Customer Data
By 6.6.14
When a company breaks its promise of securing your personal information, that’s a problem. When the company does so for three years and used consumer trading data for its own benefit, that elicits a hefty fine from U.S. regulators. [More]
Portland Will No Longer Invest In Walmart
By 5.16.14
In its continuing quest to become a caricature of outsiders’ clichés , the city of Portland, Oregon has decided to stop investing in Walmart. Wait, Portland invests in Walmart? Yes, just under 3% of the city’s portfolio consists of Walmart bonds, the last of which will mature in 2016. The city’s total Walmart holdings were $36 million. [More]
Your College Education Might Be A Better Investment For Goldman Sachs Than It Is For You
By 4.24.14
Americans have always viewed a college education as an investment in a student’s future, but there’s another sort of investment going on behind-the-scenes, and it’s nearly risk free. With access to a revolving door of prospective students and a continuous supply of federal aid, some colleges are turning hopes and dreams into big returns for Goldman Sachs and other investors. [More]
Mastermind Of Scheme To Profit From Strangers’ Deaths Gets 6-Year Prison Sentence
By 12.17.13
Should it be morally wrong to profit from the death of a stranger? What about criminally wrong? What if they’re terminally ill? What if you give them money in order to use their death to reap a profit? These were the core questions in the trial of Joseph Caramadre, who has been sentenced to six years in federal prison more than a year after pleading guilty in the scheme. [More]
Ask Tax Dad: Amending My Taxes, Social Security Disability, And Buried In Online Brokerage Paperwork
By 4.3.13 — Updated: 4.15.13
Usually, our staff Certified Tax Cat handles readers’ questions about taxes, but he found a particularly good sunbeam and called in for a personal day. Filling in for him is Laura’s dad, a retired accountant and real live independent tax preparer. Exclusively on Consumerist this spring, Tax Dad answers your questions. [More]
