miss leading the troops

[huskernumerouno]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The NASD said on Tuesday it fined two Fidelity broker-dealers a total of $400,000 for misleading U.S. military personnel in sales literature promoting two mutual funds.

 

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The violations took place between January 2003 and January 2006 and concerned the Destiny I and II funds, which require investors to invest in installments, the regulator said.

 

Fidelity Distributors Corp. of Boston and Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Co. of Smithfield, Rhode Island, will pay the fine, which will go toward the NASD military financial education program. Neither admitted wrongdoing.

 

According to the NASD, the broker-dealers issued literature with "mountain charts" that showed the funds outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 index over a 30-year period, but which masked substantial underperformance in the most recent 15 years.

 

The literature also failed to show the funds lagged the S&P 500 over the most recent 10 years, and used the wrong share class to show long-term performance. In addition, the broker-dealers sent a newsletter to more than 325,000 Destiny Plan holders that overstated the plan's performance, the NASD said.

 

"These failures were aggravated by the fact that the plans were sold primarily to military personnel, who often have limited time to study the marketing materials for investment products," said NASD enforcement chief James Shorris in a statement.

 

He added that the products "involve complex or unique features that may not be fully understood by the customers to whom they are offered or by the brokers who recommend them."

 

Fidelity Investments spokeswoman Anne Crowley said: "We regret these errors, and have taken steps to ensure they do not occur in the future. We do not believe, however, that any of the errors altered the underlying intended message of any of the sales literature."

 

Crowley and an NASD spokesman said they did not immediately know whether the literature went to military personnel in Iraq.

 

Systematic investment plans, also called periodic payment plans, typically require monthly investments for lengthy periods, often 10 or 15 years, even if performance starts to suffer. They typically carry large fees during the first year -- in Destiny's case, 50 percent on the first year of payments, the NASD said.

 

Congress last year banned the sale of new systematic investment plans when it passed the Military Personnel Financial Services Protection Act of 2006, though older plans remain in force.

[AR Husker Fan]

String 'em up by the nuts...

[HuskerNCo]

AGREE!!! HANG 'EM BY THEM THE CUT 'EM OFF...

[AR Husker Fan]

AGREE!!! HANG 'EM BY THEM THE CUT 'EM OFF...

Aw, I bet you say that to all the men...

[Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red]

Skin 'em and leave 'em in the middle of the dessert!!!

[huskernumerouno]

i agree, to take advantage of people willing to do a job they are not willing to do is punisable by death by anal eruption.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

i agree, to take advantage of people willing to do a job they are not willing to do is punisable by death by anal eruption.

I have a horrible picture in my head that's going to take an awful lot of alcohol to erase it!!!!

[Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red]

Edit: Ok so I woke up at 2:30 because I could not sleep. Why you ask? Because of the contents of this post before I edited. Just thinking about what kind of horror I would bring to you made me sick to my stomach. I'm pretty sure I would've been banned.

 

If you think you want to know what was in this post before...YOU DON'T! TRUST ME!! You will thank me for editing this.

 

And for those of you who just so happened to see this before I edited...you will be scarred for life...and I'm kinda sorry that curiosity got the best of you.

 

Have a nice day all of you (except for those who chose to follow my instructions, because you're ruined forever)

 

[MCAT800]

Get a rope!!!!!

And let them swing till the sun goes down

[808Husker in KCMO]

This happens surprisingly often. I cant count at least 5 occasions when my chains of command have allowed and endorsed this type of solicitation. Young soldies do fall for this stuff and its sad that the leaders in the army allow it to happen. These sorts of financial products are often presented as an Army endorsed program. And if the army says its good, Joe thinks its good for him.