Dinner/investments

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevewc PS. I'm the kind of person that loves to piss off the car dealer folks. Nothing I like better than wheeling and dealing with them, especially when I really don't care if I buy a car or not. They don't know how to handle that kind of play. The last time I played the game I walked out over three hundred dollars that we were apart. By this time the manager of the dealer ship (the guy who appeared on their TV commercials) was following me out in the parking lot begging. He finally said to me, you are enjoying this way to much. I just smiled and kept walking. He then said, I can't believe you are walking out over 3 hundred bucks. My reply was, I can't believe you are allowing me to walk, the ball is in your court. My Wife was with me, she said you know that was fun. If we get bored in retirement we'll just go harass car dealers. Kind of a pay back for all the BS when we really needed a car (younger days) and got jerked around.

How many dealerships have thrown you out?

[easysurfer]

Steve,

So, when the salesperson is up close in you seated at your table, I think the proper response to him/her would be, "Hey, can you pass the croutons? Hmmm...this salad is good, isn't it?"

[FinanceDude]

I used to do seminars, but I never bought dinner. The "Smart Women Finish Rich" seminar by David Bach. That was 10 years ago. We used to have wine and snacks at an Italian restaurant. I think the reason a lot of them came was that a man was giving a talk on financial literacy for women, and they wanted to give me a hard time.

I did it for about 3 years, and it worked well. The big point of the seminar was about using the workbook to get your fianances organized. You would be amazed at how many marrried women control the MONEY ina household, but NOT the finances..........

[Moemg]

[QUOTE=FinanceDude;962720]I used to do seminars, but I never bought dinner. The "Smart Women Finish Rich" seminar by David Bach. That was 10 years ago. We used to have wine and snacks at an Italian restaurant. I think the reason a lot of them came was that a man was giving a talk on financial literacy for women, and they wanted to give me a hard time.

/QUOTE]


I think most of them (at least my friends ) would have been there for the wine & snacks !

[Stevewc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREdreamer Good luck fending off the wolves Steve. To me, attending one of those dinners voluntarily would be the equivalent of giving myself a root canal just to pass time...

Not sure if I will sign up Butt.....
If I do by the time the meeting is over I'll have the representatives converted to Vanguard index funds and buying me drinks
Come on now, let an old retired guy have a little/short Ego trip !!!
I don't have many hormones or much testosterone left at this point.

PS.This made me wonder where the heck is UncleMick ?

[Stevewc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by easysurfer Steve, So, when the salesperson is up close in you seated at your table, I think the proper response to him/her would be, "Hey, can you pass the croutons? Hmmm...this salad is good, isn't it?"

I like the way you think !!!

[kaneohe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevewc You all have pointed out things I didn't realize. Number one in my mind is they may have a representative sitting at our table.

I mentioned that but it's pretty unusual in my experience.....only seen it once.
It still would be good to pre-think your exit strategy tho.......there's always
"I'll get back to you".

[Orchidflower]

These financial talks are like going swimming in a shark tank to me. The shark better get that talk loaded with exciting information or he's going to get just diners there and then he'll be:

I'll bet FinanceDude's talks drew some good clients as he hit a specific group that hadn't been tapped into and drained all that much at the time I suspect. Women would love these types of talks IF they were slanted towards women's needs. As a woman, I think alot of us feel ignored when it comes to the financial world doling out information. Just IMHO.

[kumquat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orchidflower I'll bet FinanceDude's talks drew some good clients as he hit a specific group that hadn't been tapped into and drained all that much at the time I suspect.

Are you suggesting they were drained after? If so, job well done.

[Leonidas]

This is turning out to be a different kind of adventure than I was expecting. My expectations were that whoever was behind the invite would be something/somebody well-known and easily identifiable. Instead, it's starting to smell like a con game. I might be wrong, but I'm going to drop by Wal-Mart tomorrow and buy a ten-dollar burner to use when communicating with these people. They already have my name and address (the how of which I would like to learn more about), but I'll be damned if I'm going to give them a real telephone number.

More on why I think this might be a scam in later posts. For the moment, here is a copy of the invitation with location info removed. I also removed the name of the individual/company involved, at least until I know more about this deal.

Note that the sender is a licensed insurance agent, and that agents/brokers are not permitted.

[Orchidflower]

If it is a con man, nothing like sending the invite to a guy who was a policeman....

[Leonidas]

Research on the information on the invitation is not very encouraging for this to be even close to being something I want to invest in. I'll do this in parts as I get the time:

The invitation says that, let's call her April Doe of Doe Wealth Management, will be giving workshop and insurance sales presentation. There is a toll-free number of Doe Wealth Management and a big BBB logo.

Others may disagree, but my experience is that anyone who flaunts BBB membership is almost certainly either a scammer, or the type of business that the BBB is allegedly supposed to protect against. People that go out of their way to tell you they are honest, are usually not honest at all.

The BBB does have a record for Doe Wealth Management, run by a Mr. Paul Doe. A website link, local address and telephone number are provided, along with the information that this particular business "...specializes in financial planning annuities and life insurance", and may require licensing from the Texas Department of Insurance. Business start date provided is Dec 2008, BBB membership is April of this year.

The website is bogus. The link is good, but it's just a generic piece of junk that must come with BBB membership that simply reiterates the same information from the BBB.

The address is an office suite rental outfit. The kind of place, where for a monthly fee, they will answer your phones, handle incoming mail, and rent you out a desk or meeting room when and if needed. There are hundreds of businesses using the same suite number.

Google finds nothing for the toll-free number.

Google only finds the BBB and bogus web-site when queried for the local telephone number.

DBA/assumed name database for the county shows no filing for April or Paul Doe, or Doe Wealth Management. There is a Doe Wealth Management with articles of corporation filed with the state, but it is in another city and all the names associated with it make me conclude it has nothing to do with April or Paul Doe.

The state department of insurance does show several April Does, and one of them, April Rochelle Doe, has the same insurance license number as provided on the invitation. This April Doe gives an address in Biloxi, MS. She is licensed as an individual life agent with a valid license issued in August of 2009, and appointed to represent lines for:

• ALLIANZ LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NORTH AMERICA
• AMERICAN EQUITY INVESTMENT LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
• ING USA ANNUITY AND LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY

Google the first two companies and the returns with words like "consumer complaint" and "annuity fraud" are easy to find. The third company less so.

More to follow.

[mickeyd]

I received an email from USAA a few weeks ago (I'm a 40 year member) advising me of a "retirement planning seminar" (no meal, just refreshments) to be held at a local resort hotel. I attended it yesterday and it was well attended by mostly retired military folks (I assume). Very basic 1 hour, no pressure at all pitch with excellent "resort-like snacks".

There were plenty of USAA financial planners on the fringes of the venue and it looked like many of the attendees were taking advantage of the opportunity to chat one-on-one with them.

Of all the many financial dog and pony shows that I have attended in the past few years, this one was the lowest of low key with zero sales pressure. Many of the folks there seemed to be somewhat knowledgeable about the subject matter, but none of them seemed to be in the class of E-R posters. I think I was the first to depart.

[Leonidas]

Continuation of my pre-dinner investigation findings.

Armed with my host's full name and address in Biloxi, I found indications she was an attorney at one point. But the Mississippi state bar has no information about her (neither does Texas, nor Louisiana a state where she filed at least one lawsuit). She claims to be a Notre Dame Law grad - I would have expected more economic utility from that degree.

Hubby, as I assume Paul Doe is, has been a insurance salesman for at least ten years. Licensed in Texas and Miss., his prior employer in this field was at a "retirement income specialists" firm that was selling annuities. That firm according to their state license records, sells insurance for a number of different companies, many of which have a history of AG lawsuits and fines for annuity sales practices. The firm is also associated with NEXT Financial, which was recently fined by FINRA for poor supervision of affiliates which did not prevent churning in clients' accounts.

Mr. and Mrs. Doe now advertise as financial planners with no mention of insurance sales in their YP ad and other listings.

Being the suspicious type, all of this leads me to believe that the dinner invitation is from a husband and wife team of insurance salesmen. Hubby, having learned that all financial planning and retirement needs can best be filled with a high-commission insurance product, has taught the business to his wife (whose legal career was apparently not going anywhere). They have come to the big city and coughed up the bucks for fliers, dinners, someone to answer their phone, and they're waiting for the suckers to go for the worm.

Also, they claim to be providing brokerage services through Woodstock Financial in both the dinner invitation and their YP ads. Since Woodstock is apparently a member of FINRA and SIPC and the National Ethics Bureau, they liberally sprinkle that in their advertisements in a way that would make a less-than-cautious reader think that the Doe Wealth Management firm is the one that is the member business. Of course a check with FINRA and the NEB show no record for the Doe's or their company.

So, a question for those of you who have been to such dinners. Do they check names against a list of people they know they invited? I think I want to use an assumed name on this deal just to prevent any further contact after the educational dinner for my DW.

[audreyh1]

Leonidas - can't resist playing a detective!

We used to enjoy our neighborhood Texas Land and Cattle Company. Unfortunately, a couple of my long-time faves are no longer on the menu - particularly the smoked/barbecued quail. Haven't had decent quail in a long time.....

Audrey

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leonidas So, a question for those of you who have been to such dinners. Do they check names against a list of people they know they invited? I think I want to use an assumed name on this deal just to prevent any further contact after the educational dinner for my DW.

Usually. Especially if they're organizing the seating by putting a rep of the appropriate experience next to someone who (before the dinner) asked a question about a specific problem or asset class.

[TeeRuh]

Well this thread has made me pull the trigger. Have threatened to attend one of these for some time and I've just signed up for next Tuesday. Will report back then. (I'm not putting myself to far out as this is a high end Pappas chain joint that I could walk to if I wanted to.)

t.r.

[Carnage]

Never went to a dinner for investments, but I got pulled into a "job opportunity" when I was scrambling for work after graduating from college. This was after 9/11 so the economy was poor and there were at least 100 people attending this lecture.

Near as I could tell it was for an internet portal scheme, where companies would pay you if customers purchased goods and found them through your web portal that you paid to set up.

Anyways, 5 minutes in, it was evident that it was a scheme and the lecturers were pushing the lecture quite hard with the super-duper-happy enthusiasm. The first breakout came like 15 minutes in and about 10 of us ran for the elevator....no idea what the remaining 90 were doing staying.

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kumquat Are you suggesting they were drained after? If so, job well done.

Outside of this board and a few others, financial literacy is quite low......

[Coderguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FinanceDude Come up to Milwaukee, I go to 2-3 a year.........

And how do people get invited to these things?