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Investor Alerts

  • Leveraged and Inverse ETFs: Specialized Products with Extra Risks for Buy-and-Hold Investors
    The SEC staff and FINRA are issuing this Alert because we believe individual investors may be confused about the performance objectives of leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
  • Seniors Beware: What You Should Know About Life Settlements
    Lately, more and more seniors are hearing about opportunities to sell their existing life insurance for cash in transactions known as life settlements. A life settlement, or senior settlement, as they are sometimes called, involves selling an existing life insurance policy to a third party--a person or an entity other than the company that issued the policy--for more than the policy's cash surrender value, but less than the net death benefit.
  • Subordination Agreements—Understand the Risks
    When you think of investments and brokerage firms, you probably think of opening an account and buying stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. When you enter into a subordination agreement, you are making an investment, but the investment is in the brokerage firm itself.
  • Putting Too Much Stock in Your Company—A 401(k) Problem
    We are issuing this Alert out of a concern that employees who have the opportunity to invest in company stock may be concentrating too much of their retirement savings in a single security. Of particular concern are employees who have all or most of their 401(k) assets in their employer's stock. If the stock takes a beating, so does your retirement savings.
  • Mutual Fund Breakpoints: Are You Owed a Refund?
    You may be eligible for a refund of a portion of the front-end sales charge that you paid when you purchased Class A shares of a mutual fund from your securities firm. An industry-wide survey indicated that investors did not receive discounts in approximately one out of every five transactions that were eligible for discounts.
  • Updated: Mutual Fund Breakpoints: A Break Worth Taking
    Mutual funds often offer discounts on front-end sales charges or loads for larger investments. The investment levels at which the discounts become available are called "breakpoints."
  • Should You Exchange Your Life Insurance Policy?
    If you own a life insurance policy, you may have been approached to exchange it for another new policy. You need to know that even though the tax laws make the exchange income tax free and the new policy may appear better to you, you may be losing - not gaining - if you make the exchange.