“Should Personal Finance Writers Be Liable For Bad ... - WIBW” plus 3 more |
- Should Personal Finance Writers Be Liable For Bad ... - WIBW
- Happy Memorial Day from the Personal Finance Corner - All Business
- Personal finance: Consumers' frugality outliving ... - Reno Gazette
- Personal Finance Daily - Marketwatch
| Should Personal Finance Writers Be Liable For Bad ... - WIBW Posted: 31 May 2010 07:10 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. After I argued last week that Congress ought to force financial advisers to do a better job for their clients, a reader posted a related question: Would personal finance journalists have to meet these higher standards as well? He followed up with an email: George, for this fiduciary responsibility that you are advocating — shouldn't it also apply to you and the other columnists who post advice on CNNMoney? For that matter, why not to Suze Orman and Jim Cramer? Shouldn't you be able to be sued if your advice doesn't work out for an investor that took it? Fair questions. I can't say I have years of experience in the field of securities law and regulation, but here's my short answer: No. A slightly longer answer (none of which should be understood as an official answer from MONEY's lawyers or owners): The fiduciary standard I discussed would, in the amendment introduced by Senators Akaka, Menendez and Durbin, be expanded to cover "a broker or dealer, when providing personalized investment advice about securities to a retail customer." Suze Orman, my colleagues at MONEY and CNNMoney.com and I aren't brokers or dealers, so we wouldn't be covered by that legislation. Even though that knocks us out of a fiduciary obligation in this go-round, I think it's worth exploring whether we financial journalists do in fact offer "personalized investment advice." You could argue that we do, since at MONEY and CNNMoney.com we regularly answer questions from individuals seeking advice. But I would disagree, for two reasons. First, our answers to specific questions — along with all the advice we give in articles that aren't responding to individual readers — aren't "personalized"; they're intended to be useful information for anyone who looks at them. Second, to the extent that we do answer a specific person's question in a column, I'd say there's a huge qualitative distinction between what we know about the writer and his or her situation (generally, a paragraph of background information) and what an investment professional knows (or should know) about the particular circumstances of the customers he or she is advising. As a general rule, financial journalists most of the time don't even meet the fiduciary standard's weaker cousin, the suitability standard, as part of which brokers are instructed, "Know Your Customer." I think people seeking advice from personal finance journalists have expectations of us that are far different than those they have of financial industry professionals. We journalists are strangers dispensing free advice; financial advisers, however, are meeting them face-to-face and doing business. While they might reasonably assume that we journalists will have intelligent, well-thought-out answers to their questions, I doubt they believe that our obligations to them are as strong as those of someone they're paying to ensure their financial security. Another thought: The fiduciary duty, when it is applied, is usually understood as covering someone not simply who is in a trusted position, but also who can profit at a trusting person's expense by choosing one course of action over another. Whatever advice we financial journalists might give, we wouldn't make more money by recommending a lousy investment over a good one — a far different situation from that of a broker who might earn a larger commission by selling you a product that's worse for you than another that earns him less. But though my colleagues and I might not be legally obligated to give you good advice, we have selfish motives for doing so. The dumber our recommendations, the more likely you are to figure out we're giving bad advice, and the more likely you are to lose interest in us. It's a matter of pride — and continued employment — for a journalist to write material that readers find useful and good; none of us wants to develop a reputation for stupidity. Granted, a fiduciary obligation might establish minimum requirements of professional competency for personal finance journalists. But who needs such a formal standard when you have the Internet? As I have learned from personal experience, if people think I've given bad advice, word gets around pretty quickly. Add the More Money blog to your favorite RSS reader. Subscribe at http://rss.cnn.com/moneyfeatures.rss. Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Happy Memorial Day from the Personal Finance Corner - All Business Posted: 31 May 2010 10:02 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
Happy Memorial Day! Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Personal finance: Consumers' frugality outliving ... - Reno Gazette Posted: 31 May 2010 01:33 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Even as the economic recovery plods ahead, many American consumers are refusing to come along. They're not spending freely -- and they have no plans to. Many of them have steady income. They aren't saddled by high debts. They don't fear losing their jobs. Yet despite recent gains, they've lost so much household wealth that they're far more cautious about spending than before the recession. Their behavior suggests that the recession may have bred a new frugality that will endure well into the recovery. And because consumers fuel about 70 percent of the economy, their tightfisted habits mean the rebound could stay unusually sluggish. That's the picture that emerges from an Associated Press survey of leading economists and interviews with more than two dozen ordinary Americans. The new AP Economy Survey asked 44 leading economists whether the recession created a "new frugality" among consumers that will outlive the recession. Two-thirds said yes. They had in mind people like Marjorie Feldman of suburban St. Louis, who retired three years ago as a systems analyst for a utility company. The stock investments in her retirement account have sunk 15 percent from 2007. The value of her home is down 20 percent. "I had retired assuming I'd make money" off the investments, said Feldman, who's in her early 60s. "I just don't feel as confident in the economy, and I never will again. I won't spend money the way I used to." Feldman's husband works full time in academia. She has a part time job preparing tax returns at H&R Block. But her prime earning years are behind her. "I don't think it will ever get back to where it was before," she said of her nest egg. "I won't spend money the way I used to." Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody's Economy.com, notes that baby boomers, in particular, enjoyed spending sprees for most of their adult lives as their assets steadily grew. "But the recession changed that," Hoyt said. "Many have retirement and children's education looming. All of a sudden, they see their balance sheets decline in a way they've never seen before." At their nerve-racked peak last year, Americans socked away 6.4 percent of their disposable income. That compared with less than 1 percent hit at one point during the prerecession boom. The savings rate has since dropped to 3.1 percent. Yet few expect it to approach the near-zero savings rate that would signal high-octane spending has roared back. "I would call it a 'mini age of austerity,'" said Sean Snaith, an economics professor at the University of Central Florida. "Consumers will not run up multiple credit cards to their limits; and when buying a house, the objective will not be to get the maximum square footage for which they can afford the payment. A higher savings rate will be in place for several years." Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Personal Finance Daily - Marketwatch Posted: 29 May 2010 04:56 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
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By MarketWatch In case you missed them, here are the top 10 Personal Finance stories from MarketWatch for the week of May 24-28: Memorial Day ushers in a summer of cheap gas
Here's a switch in gears: The Memorial Day weekend is the traditional start to the summer driving season -- and higher gas costs, but this year pump prices have been on a steady decline and are expected to fall further by midsummer.
Make sure your portfolio profits in losing markets
With the U.S. stock market in May sliding to its biggest monthly drop in more than a year, the bears are back. Is your portfolio prepared?
House extends jobless benefits, tax breaks
The House of Representatives voted Friday, 215 to 204 to extend unemployment-insurance benefits through November as part of a wide-ranging bill that includes a tax hike on hedge-fund managers plus the renewal of a slew of expired middle-class tax perks.
Five ways to keep your kids safe this summer
As summer approaches, so does the prime injury season for children. Parents have different ideas about how to keep their kids safe, but their assumptions don't always match up with some of the biggest known threats.
Home buyers: Get the most for your money
The nation's housing inventory is cluttered with foreclosures, short sales and home builders willing to make a deal. If you're in the market to buy a home today, you're likely weighing the benefits of each type of property available for purchase.
Got a steep college bill? What to do now
If you're a parent who's been hit with financial body blows because of a job loss, depreciated assets or even just higher-than-expected tuition, you may be worried about how to pay the college bills coming due now.
Five-star mutual funds don't live up to their past
Tim Courtney decided he'd had enough. In meeting after meeting this year, he and his colleagues at Burns Advisory Group had recommended mutual funds to prospective clients, only to be hit with the same response almost every time: Why are you telling me to invest in a three-star rated fund?
Save money by tapping into crowd's clout
The recession has transformed more consumers into discount shoppers, and now websites that harness the power of group purchasing are helping them get even better deals.
Ready for retirement? Here's your checklist
What does it take to make the move from a working life to retirement, and to make that move successfully? Not unlike the planning involved in any trip, you need a checklist to make sure you have everything you need to get from one place to another.
Follow your parents' career path? Not that
I love journalism, but I'm not eager for my 9-month-old baby to grow up and become the next Mike Royko. Media companies have been slashing jobs for years, and I'd prefer Eve pursue a field with more open doors.
Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
Today is Memorial Day, a time when we remember our brave soldiers who have fought so well for us. My husband and I both have relatives that have served in the Armed Forces, and we are grateful to them, as we are thankful for the others who have protected our country with their blood and lives. So, while enjoying your Memorial Day, don't forget to remember those who have gone before.| You are subscribed to email updates from Personal-Finance - Bing News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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