FINRA Offers Education on Early Retirement Scams

According to a FINRA announcement, “Help Your Employees Achieve Their Retirement Dream: Tips for Spotting Early Retirement Scams,” offers tips on how to evaluate the financial professionals involved in early retirement seminars and the seminar materials such as invitations, slides, handouts, and scripts. Companies may also send early retirement seminar materials to FINRA for review if they have concerns.

The second resource “Early Retirement Seminars 101: Smart Tips for Spotting Retirement Scams,” alerts employees to the pitfalls of early retirement schemes.

FINRA said it launched the resources in the wake of two major FINRA enforcement actions that involved multi-million-dollar fines and tens of millions in restitution to employees, and additional investigations are currently underway.

The organization has been interested in ensuring that senior investors, and those nearing retirement, are receiving appropriate services from financial services firms. In February, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), and FINRA launched an initiative to identify effective practices used by financial services firms in dealing with senior investors (See Regulators to Share Best Practices in Working with Senior Investors). Last September, FINRA initiated two regulatory sweeps intended to ensure that securities firms are using appropriate sales practices in their dealings with seniors and individuals nearing retirement (See FINRA to Check Securities Firms’ Sales Practices with Seniors).

The new online resources are available at www.finra.org/investor and from the Society for Human Resource Management at www.shrm.org/financialliteracy.