By Lisa Gerstner
From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
Andrew Hartnett, deputy commissioner of the Iowa Insurance Division and president of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), explains how to best protect vulnerable seniors.
Question: Protecting seniors from fraud and exploitation is part of NASAA’s mission. What types of scams are targeting seniors lately?
Answer: States and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have brought several actions against sellers of precious metals who were using fear to convince investors to move their retirement savings to self-directed IRAs and use the funds to buy precious metals coins. The sellers did not disclose large mark-ups on the coin prices, and the states and the CFTC alleged that the investors might lose one-third to one-half of their retirement savings just by saying yes….