By 
Insurance agents and other financial product marketers who claim to be adept at convincing their targets that they can be trusted are hurting legitimate financial professionals while ripping off older consumers.
I call these financial scammers “SMELIE’s”. SMELIE is an acronym for “Market for the elderly, no education, independent companies”. This is not a condemnation of everyone, not even the majority of insurance agents or other financial services professionals, most of whom conduct their business honorably. But SMELIE’S has become too common and its victims are being scammed out of millions of dollars.
NOTE: To see some dramatic footage of SMELIE being caught on camera in the process of trying to trick older consumers into buying inappropriate annuity products, cut and paste this URL into your browser http: //www.msnbc.msn. com / id / 24095230 Just click on the Video link and you can watch NBC’s DateLine using the same tactics they used to catch child predators last year.
One way to identify a SMELIE is that they often hide the fact that they have little knowledge or experience of complex planning issues for seniors, buying one or more “credentials” to make it appear that they have a sophisticated level of education and experience that enables them to advise seniors on important issues like long-term care planning or how best to invest your retirement savings.
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson was quoted in a recent investigative report broadcast on NBC’s “Dateline” that an “underground industry” has developed to make corrupt agents appear legitimate. A SMELIE can obtain a title to put after their name, such as “Certified Senior Specialist” (CSS), “Certified Senior Advisor” (CSA), “Certified Senior Consultant” (CSC), “Certified Retirement Financial Advisor” (CRFA) , “Certified Estate Planner” (CEP) and “Registered Financial Gerontologist” (RFG) paying a fee, generally in the range of $ 1000 to $ 2500, attend just 2 or 3 days of classes and then pass an exam, administered by the same company that paid to take the course.
Compare this to legitimate credentials, such as the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation, which requires years of intensive course work and study and a rigorous exam administered by an independent testing company with no vested interest in how many pass or fail the exam. .
Last September, Joseph Borg, director of the Alabama Securities Commission and president of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA); told a Congressional hearing on NASAA’s state-by-state efforts to combat problems caused by the proliferation of inappropriate appointments of senior financial advisers, and outlined NASAA’s policy that would make it a violation of law to use of a designation to mislead investors.
Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said he will develop legislation to provide uniform accreditation standards to prevent financial sales agent practices of using these questionable credentials to gain access to retirement savings. of the elderly. According to Kohl’s office, they will be encouraged to adopt these new standards.
The great tragedy is that these frequent and blatant practices have given the financial services industry such a bad image in the eyes of older consumers and their families that many of those who would benefit from purchasing long-care insurance. term, reverse mortgages and other financial services. Products that can protect your retirement savings and assets and improve your quality of life do not because they believe that even legitimate agents who adhere to a consumer-centric code of ethics are also criminals.
You’d think that reputable insurance companies and financial services firms would hear a wake-up call when the agents selling their products show up.