SeniorTruth

There’s a confusing maze of government income, health and care programs for seniors out there. Here’s a quick guide to eight of them:

Like many financial products, reverse mortgages have virtues and evils — and are suitable in some circumstances and abusive in others.
A while back we took the Los Angeles Times to task for an article extolling the virtues of reverse mortgages, without pointing out much of the other side of the picture.
Bravo! for Charles Duhigg and [...]

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) has issued a proposed rule to respond to the continuing problem of misleading “credentials” used to market to seniors. Comments on the rule are due by December 9. See our most recent post on this problem.
NASAA is a

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators recently issued their report warning of the “free lunch” seminars regularly targeting seniors. The report was based on a year-long examination conducted by the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and state securities regulators.
Among the findings,

100% of the “seminars” were instead sales presentations.

On September 11, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned mortgage brokers and lenders, and media outlets that carry their advertisements for home mortgages, that some of the advertising claims currently appearing in Web sites, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and unsolicited e-mail and faxes may violate federal law.
“Many mortgage advertisers are making potentially deceptive claims about [...]

For years we’ve been warning about the growth of light-weight “credentials” that are used to entice and comfort seniors into making questionable financial decisions. We first wrote about it in “Choose the Right Financial Planner” in the Spring 2004 H.E.L.P. Is Here magazine.
A week at summer camp is more work than obtaining some lofty-sounding titles. [...]

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently highlighted several successes by its Inspector General in investigating people who mishandle the finances of veterans and family members unable to manage their own affairs.
From January 2005 through April 5, 2007, the Inspector General investigated 61 cases of alleged fiduciary fraud.

All too often, greedy sales people sell unsuitable annuities to seniors. We’ve revealed stinky annuity sales situations and much more on our annuitytruth.org website. The June issue of MONEY Magazine recommends annuitytruth.org to its readers, especially those who want to undo an unsuitable sale.

Today’s NY Times gives front page coverage to businesses that team up to target and take advantage of vulnerable seniors. Past victims of lottery and other scams — and others thought to be susceptible — are highlighted in marketing databases, repeatedly sold to scammers for telemarketing and direct mail bilking of seniors.
See NY Times “Bilking [...]