Monday, August 9, 2010

FRAUD - 10 WARNING SIGNS ABOUT YOUR 401K

The U.S. Labor Department publishes
10 signs that your 401(k) retirement account may be subject to fraud:

1) Your quarterly 401(k) statement is consistently late or comes at irregular intervals.

2) Your account balance appears to be inaccurate.

3) Your employer failed to transmit your contribution to the plan on a timely basis.

4) A significant drop in account balance appears that cannot be explained by normal market ups and downs.

5) Your 401(k) statement shows that your contribution from your paycheck was not made.

6) Investments listed on your statement are not what you authorized.

7) Former employees are having trouble getting their benefits paid on time or in the correct amounts.

8) Unusual transactions show up.

9) Frequent and unexplained changes take place in investment managers or consultants.

10) Your employer has recently experienced severe financial difficulty.
This was excerpted from a a larger article by Jim Gallagher in St. Louis today - recommended reading if you or your clients have a closely managed retirement account of any kind.

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