FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) has just published an article on Avoiding Investment Scams which is available below:

FINRA Avoiding Investment Scams

This article is six pages long, and depending upon your perspective, either teaches you how to run an investment scam or how to recognize one. It however, does not teach you how to avoid one in the first place.

Here is a reprisal of the earlier piece we did on how to AVOID an investment scam:

This is what you have with The Barfield Group and what you can tell your friends: It is very simple, but oh so effective:

1) Have the assets held in custody at an independent, well recognized custodian (Ameritrade, Schwab, Fidelity, E-Trade etc).
2) Make your checks out to the name of your account and make certain you have a segregated account titled in your name (i.e. Tom Jones IRA or Tom Jones Brokerage Account)
3) Make certain that separate and independent reporting comes from the custodian in addition to any reporting done by the advisor.

There you have it. This is all that is necessary to avoid fraud with your funds. You need not employ expensive consultants, investigators, or other police. Just have the funds deposited, held, and reported from an independent custodian.

You see it’s not the biggest or most heavily marketed firms that produce the best results for their clients (and haven’t we all seen that from AIG, Wachovia, Lehman, and UBS Paine Webber?). It’s firms like The Barfield Group that do simple, but effective things which produce the best results.

Please share this with your friends so as to protect all investors.

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