Fraud Awareness

 

From the Desk of a Self-Directed IRA Expert

Fraud Awareness

By Kaaren Hall, President, uDirect IRA Services

www.uDirectIRA.com

 

Self-Directed IRAs are just that, directed by you.  It’s a great freedom to be able to invest your retirement dollars into practically any investment you can think of and not be limited to stocks, bonds and mutual funds.  With great freedom comes great responsibility.

 

No matter who you choose as your self-directed IRA provider, know that company is not going to advise you about what kind of assets you should invest in.  When it comes to choosing investments the best thing to do is to learn as much as you can about that particular asset class. 

 

It doesn’t take much effort, maybe just a Google search, to find local investor clubs, MeetUps and organizations that teach people about investing.  Perhaps your local community college has a class or two.  Word of mouth can be a great thing and learning from others’ experience and often proves valuable. 

 

When you’re considering a particular investment be sure to look into that asset as fully as you can.  If you are, for example, investing in a 506 Reg D syndication then one good idea is to fire up that Google browser and enter the names of the principles.  Find out if the investment is registered; find out if the people offering the investment are registered.  Find out if the principles have ever served jail time.

 

Jail time?  You think I’m kidding?  More than once I’ve seen someone send thousands and thousands of dollars into an investment where the principles had actually been incarcerated in the past for some kind of investment fraud.  A simple browser search could have alerted them to danger.

 

Fraud is not always something you can prevent but it’s worth a shot when you’re thinking of investing the precious nest egg called your “Retirement”.  Here are some helpful resources:

 

www.investor.gov

800 732 0330 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is dedicated to helping Americans protect their investments.

 

www.nasaa.org

202 737 0900 The North American Securities Administrators’ Association (NASAA) provides information on investor education.

 

www.finra.org

301 590 6500 The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has an “Investor” section on Smart Investing.

 

www.aarp.com

888 687 2277 American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) includes a section on scams, fraud and consumer protection.