Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Suspicious Investment Advice

I went to the bank to start buying a series of 12 month CDs each month that would mature about once every 12 months for liquidity without penalty.  I can get better returns from my Credit Union, but the bank said they would match that.  Well, OK, that's more convenient.

Instead, I got sales pitches for riskier investments.  GRRR!!!  But on the possibility that I was missing out on some decent investments (and not outrageous "shooting the moon" types), I researched the advice.

I found lies at worst, and evasions at best.  I won't be trusting my commercial bank for any investments, LOL!

A wise person once said that you should never invest in anything you don't understand as well as "they" do.  I agree. 

I was set on guard when the investment guy at the bank started by asking me a lot of personal frendly questions designed to elicit a "yes" reponse.  But I know about that trick.  Once they are friendly and get you saying "yes", it is harder to say "no".  I can say "no" (and did),

One way to judge those questions and statements is to ask, "what would an honest person say and what would a dishonest person say?"  If the answer is the same for both, then be very careful.

As in what do innocent people in jail and guilty people in jail both say?  "I'm innocent".  Or if you are astronomy-minded, how do you know the Earth moves around the sun and not vice-versa.  It looks the same both ways, but only one is correct. 

I did some research on what the bank investor guy said.  Some statements were clearly true, but a few were clearly false.  A single persuasive positively-presented false statement negates all the true ones so far as trustworthiness is concerned. 

So I do not trust my current bank to support MY interests, and will be changing it soon. 

And all because they set up a meeting to do one thing I came for and pushed another I didn't...

1 comment:

Megan said...

That is an appalling experience to have had at your bank, Mark. How many people would take the 'advice' that was offered on the basis that the expert at the bank would know better than they did? Is there any merit in providing feedback to the bank somehow - other than taking your business elsewhere? I presume that the chap you spoke to was following the party line, but that only means that the problem is entrenched in the system, making it even worse than if he were simply a lone rogue adviser.

Megan
Sydney, Australia

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