A new documentary on PBS called “The Retirement Gamble” is a must-watch Frontline documentary for those concerned about securing a comfortable retirement. According to the Bam Alliance, the documentary will shed a lot of light on all the issues we now face with retirement, and how they are going to deeply affect us in the coming years.
You may have noticed lately that the financial services industry is in full gear with retirement ads about how important it is to open an account right away. This is probably due to the fact that only one in every three Americans has any sort of retirement account.
Don’t be fooled though. As important as it is to put away for retirement, these ads are not focused on your well being — they are focused on getting your money, because retirement is actually a huge moneymaker.
PBS.org says that as long as they don’t run away with our money or invest it in a Ponzi scheme, financial services firms have little in the way of accountability to us when something goes wrong. And even then it can be hard to fight back.
Big banks, brokerages, insurance companies, and other big financial service providers operate under something called a suitability standard — which says they don’t have to give you the best advice, just advice that isn’t too egregiously terrible.
Let’s say you sit down with an adviser at your brokerage or bank, and ask for some advice on how you should allocate your retirement savings, or which funds you might want to choose for your IRA. They cannot overtly mislead you, but they do not have to have your best interests at heart. Their advice may be designed solely to make money — for them.
Check out the link below to view the documentary, as it will be a very eye opening experience.
Article Sources: PBS.ORG | Bam Alliance