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SMART INVESTING GRANT - From IPT: The Investor Protection Trust (IPT) has awarded a grant to the NET Foundation for Television to develop and implement the "Smart Investing" program. Statewide Nebraska public broadcasters NET Radio and NET Television are partnering on the "Smart Investing" project. The project includes an NET Radio series of reports offering investor protection at all ages, as well as a live radio call-in show with investment expert Chris Farrell and television specials later in the year from NET Television. A Web site with helpful information and links to resources and audio links to each of the NET Radio "Smart Investing" segments are available on NET Radio's Web site. Topics covered in the series include investment...
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DIVERSIFIED INCOME HARVESTING AND RETIREMENT INCOME - From FPA: The use of four distinct investment accounts can produce a higher percentage of income withdrawals to fund retirement, compared with more traditional retirement-withdrawal strategies, contends an award-winning article in the August 2008 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning, published monthly by the Financial Planning Association (FPA). The article, "Income-Harvesting Strategy: Achieving Inflation-Adjusted Income from a Lump-Sum Asset," by Zachary S. Parker, CFP, LUTCF, of Securities America, Omaha, Neb., won a Judge's Grant in the 2007 Financial Frontiers Award competition. To date, most income-distribution strategies proposed for retirement have been based on withdrawing a...
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FAIR FUND DISTRIBUTION TO INVESTORS - From SEC: The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the distribution of nearly $40 million to more than 600,000 investors who were harmed by undisclosed market timing and excessive short-term trading in certain mutual funds. This is the first in a series of Fair Fund distributions that will ultimately return a total of more than $150 million to more than 1.5 million mutual fund investors. In October 2003, the SEC and the Massachusetts Securities Division brought separate administrative proceedings against Putnam. In these proceedings, which were fully settled in April 2004, the mutual fund company agreed to pay disgorgement and financial penalties and to implement certain compliance, mutual fund governance, and employee trading reforms ...
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INFLATION AND YOUR INVESTMENTS - From FiPA: With inflation on the rise and "safe" investments offering paltry returns, it's important to make sure you're not actually losing money on your CDs, money-market accounts or bonds. So where should investors stash their loot? Though money-market yields are not quite as attractive as CDs, investors have the flexibility to move cash around if interest rates improve. When choosing funds, it might be wise to look at tax-sheltered investments like municipal bonds. Another important factor to consider is the expense ratio, which shows how large the fees are. TheStreet.com offers insights and tips on protecting yourself from inflation ...
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FOREX FRAUD TASK FORCE - From CFTC: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has formed a special task force charged with investigating and litigating fraud in the off-exchange retail foreign currency (FOREX) market. The creation of the task force within the Division of Enforcement comes in the wake of Congress' passage in June 2008 of "The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008" that clarified and strengthened the CFTC's jurisdiction over this market. The task force will focus on fraud in the retail FOREX market and will work cooperatively with other federal and state regulatory and criminal authorities ...
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LOAD VS. NO-LOAD MUTUAL FUNDS - Mutual fund investors should avoid unnecessary charges whenever possible. In most instances, <the easiest approach is to focus on no-load and low-load mutual funds. For every high-performing load fund, there usually is a similar no-load or low-load fund that can be purchased more cheaply. If you are investing larger amounts of money, however, load funds need not be written off entirely if there is one you find particularly appealing, according to the American Association of Individual Investors    ...
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REVERSE MORTGAGES AND SENIORS - If you are in your sixties, and own your home, chances are you have heard about reverse mortgages-or will soon. Some financial institutions are aggressively marketing reverse mortgages as an easy, cost-free way for retirees to finance lifestyles that can jeopardize their financial futures. A new podcast from FINRA tells you what you need to know to avoid a reversal of fortune ...
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SEC 'RETIRES' SCHEME - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has obtained emergency relief to stop an allegedly fraudulent scheme that raised over $7.2 million from investors who were told the money would be used in a business shredding and recycling used tires. However, as alleged in the SEC's complaint, the tire shredding equipment did not work, there was no reasonable basis for purported income and return figures, and the investors never received a dime from their investment ...
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401(K) DEBIT CARD INVESTOR ALERT - A number of companies are beginning to offer a "401(k) debit card" to employees who invest in 401(k) retirement programs.  A 401(k) debit card allows you to borrow up to $50,000 or 50% of the value of your retirement plan, whichever is less, through use of a debit card.  The Securities and Exchange Commission recently released an investor alert to make consumers aware of the factors they need to take into consideration before using one of these cards     ...
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RELAUNCH OF HELPFORINVESTORS.ORG - In order to make it as easy as possible for investors in trouble to find the help they need quickly, the 19-member Alliance For Investor Education (AIE) has launched an updated version of the "one-stop information shopping" site at http://www.HelpForInvestors.org to pull together 14 key links into a single Web page.  The easy-to-use list shows investors where to check out financial professionals, how to report investment fraud, the best help for dealing with other major problems - including broker bankruptcies, identity theft and 401(k) claims - and filing arbitration and mediation claims ...
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