“He was a very smart man but he died like an idiot,” is the frank and harsh assessment made by Paul Skurka concerning his friend and fellow Holocaust survivor, Roman Blum, who died last year at the age of 97 without a will. Blum had no known heirs and no surviving members. Blum’s estate is […]
Retirees are being solicited by certain companies to obtain “pension advances,” which regulators say are really disguised loans. The New York Times has determined that pension advances carry (after factoring in fees) interests rates ranging from 27 percent to 106 percent. Jessica Silver-Greenberg, “Loans Borrowed Against Pensions Squeeze Retirees,” New York Times, Apr. 28, 2013, […]
In response to a DOJ civil lawsuit that the company committed fraud when it asserted that its ratings were independent and objective, Standard and Poor’s Rating Services has claimed that the assertions were mere “puffery.” Whether or not the argument is legally viable, the Wall Street Journal notes that the position degrades the reputation of […]
For years, brokers with sizeable books of business (large and well-funded client bases) often moved between firms in order to receive robust up-front bonuses. The bonuses often measure between $750,000 and $1 million. The bonuses are generally paid to brokers in the form of “forgivable loans” – for each year that the broker is employed […]