When Obamacare was signed into law in 2010 after being rammed through Congress, a lot of promises were made and subsequently broken. We all know how the “if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor” bit turned out to be a complete lie.
We were also promised that insurance premiums would go down; To be kind we’ll call that a half-truth. Obamacare did introduce some lower-cost options in their state-run exchanges, but the new law made private insurance accounts even more expensive than they already were.
This forced many people and employers into going to the government exchanges out of financial necessity. People got plans that were worse than what they had because that was all they could afford. This, of course, is the goal of all liberal governments. Force people out of private enterprise programs that they prefer into those run inefficiently by Uncle Sam.
Now it appears that the administration is prepared to take the same tack in regard to your retirement savings accounts. To read how the Obama administration plans to force citizens out of their private accounts and into government ones, continue reading on the next page:
Shots will be taken.
Keith Olbricht Seems to me the administration wants to make so difficult for financial professionals to operate that people will be forces to a government run program. And we can see that the government is not capable of handling money – we haven’t had a balanced budget in years, the national debt is sky-rocketing, they have stolen from social security (the government run retirement program), and they keep handing out money they don’t have (whether to other countries or welfare). Maybe they should change high school curriculum so that it teaches teenagers how to invest for their retirement.
Keith Olbricht as for the fiduciary standard, the problem isn’t so much the financial advice as it is the managers of the funds. All these mutual fund managers make hundreds of thousands of dollars, even when their fund loses money. Why should someone who’s put their money into a 401K have to pay fees to the fund manager when the fund manager lost them money? Mutual funds, in my opinion, are a scam and should be avoided. Learn to invest yourself. I have my own brokerage account, and pick and choose which stocks/options to invest in. Yes, I spend money to learn how to invest, but I make in a month what the average mutual fund makes in a year. We don’t need government run programs, we need education.
Andy Makar There is a big difference. 1) in spite of the fees, the money put into social security should grow through interest, which it doesn’t in the government’s pocket. 2) if it’s privatized the government can’t continue to steal from it. Also, if I recall correctly, Communism is a society where the government owns/controls everything. If these funds are invested into stocks/options/bonds/etc. the people, not the government or the private company, would own the shares.
Steve Fitzpatrick I’m sure you want to get paid for the work you do. Financial advisors are no different, they want to get paid for the work they do. If you don’t like the advice they give learn to invest on your own so you won’t need them. I make 10% monthly investing in my own brokerage account, if you want to learn how to do the same I would teach you – for a price. I paid to learn how to do it, I’m not going to give that information away for free. I don’t agree with most financial advisors because they want you to invest in mutual funds, and mutual funds are a scam. Regardless, they work for you and expect to get paid.
Grant Adam Brennan Sorry, but I have to disagree. The highest position in the land is supposed to be the people. We are supposed to have a government BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE. We elect people to manage the country not control it. The problem is that government control has gotten way out of hand. And is is now what they want not what the people want.
Scott, expecting to get paid is one thing. I expect them to get paid. What I don’t expect is for them to steer me (or more importantly seniors) into investment vehicles that purposefully benefit them to the detriment of the investor. That is what this law is for and it’s a good law and the Wall Street interests are now fighting it. Just because you view yourself to be a sage investor, that doesn’t mean that only sage investors can invest. If the bank was taking money out of bank accounts on a daily basis would you blame the people not watching their account or the bank?
Ron Witte Seems to me that is the point. All financial advisors are going to have to raise their fees because of the new rules; this will force people to use the cheaper government run investments – and from social security we know how that will turn out.
He isn’t going to be there forever.
Scott Raymond, the financial advisors WILL NOT HAVE TO raise their fees. That is the excuse they will use because they can no longer legally screw their clients. The new rules will NOT FORCE people to do anything . They can still get educated and invest on their own. Why do you have a beef with SS? SS isn’t the problem. The Congress who spent the money, which by the way us required by law, is the problem.
The average investor will do better by purchasing an indexed SP fund with low fees. No one beats the indexes over the long term. No one.