本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Like the author said, it can happen to anyone. It's always been good to have some extent of fincial knowledge in the daily life. :P And most importantly.
"Trust but verify. Open your mail. Confirm the accuracy of your trades and fund transfers. Read your account statements. Every month. Every number. Every single word. "
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
by Ron Lieber (New York Times)
On Sunday, I returned from vacation, picked up the mail and found a disturbing letter from Charles Schwab & Company. It said that it had discovered unauthorized money transfers out of accounts associated with the financial planning firm I use.
The situation was even worse than I had feared. It was my own planner, who was under investigation for siphoning off what appeared to be millions of dollars from client accounts. And, as Schwab's note helpfully suggested, it might be a good idea to take another look at my statements for the last few years.
In case it is not glaringly obvious, I write a personal finance column for a living. I am also the kind of person who derives joy from reading the fine print on bank statements and runs spreadsheets on my credit card spending. I thought I knew what I was doing. So if I can get mixed up in something like this, trust me, it can happen to anyone.
So how did this happen?
It starts, oddly enough, with one of my old articles. In 2003, when I was at The Wall Street Journal, I did a sort of secret shopper column on seeking financial advice. My wife and I had a couple of questions that we needed to answer, and we put them to five different types of advisers.
One of them was Matthew Weitzman, who had started AFW Asset Management (now known as AFW Wealth Advisors) a few years earlier with his high school friend Jay Furst. We liked Mr. Weitzman's advice and demeanor. His disciplinary record was clean and he had gone to good schools (Cornell undergraduate, Columbia M.B.A.). While we didn't talk to him much over the next six years, his advice was always wise, and he was willing to work with us even though we had less money than his other clients.
Fast-forward to last weekend and cue my jaw hitting the floor as I realized what the note from Schwab was implying. Sure enough, the next day AFW sent me an e-mail message -- which another planner there said I should have received before the Schwab letter arrived -- offering a bit more detail.
According to AFW's note, there were "certain irregularities in a limited number of client accounts." The firm said it believed that less than 5 percent of client assets were missing but added that it might find more accounts that were short some money.
Within 24 hours of learning of the problem, AFW said, it notified the Securities and Exchange Commission, the United States attorney's office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The first two declined to confirm or deny that there was any investigation, and an F.B.I. spokeswoman did not return my calls.
AFW also said that "in a related matter," Mr. Weitzman was now on leave, was not expected to return (ever) and would have "no further contact with any client accounts."
It is too early to say exactly what happened and who is responsible. Mr. Weitzman did not respond to my repeated attempts to speak with him this week. But his lawyer, Marc Mukasey, who leads the white-collar criminal defense practice at Bracewell & Giuliani in New York, called me back. "Matt Weitzman has not been charged with a crime or any violations," he said. "We're looking forward to a resolution of this matter that satisfies everybody."
After I scoured five years' worth of account statements and crosschecked online, I found nothing missing from our Schwab accounts. But I still wanted to know, as both a reporter and a client, how others' money could disappear. So I called Schwab and asked.
Under normal circumstances, clients can allow a range of access and trading privileges on their investment accounts. Some trusting types grant full power of attorney to their advisers, even allowing check-writing privileges. Other customers allow read-only access to account statements and balances, preferring to make any trades or wire transfers themselves.
One possible explanation of what went on here, according to Schwab, is a case of forged signatures. At least one client with missing money claims never to have authorized the transfers. Yet there are signed documents granting permission to move the funds. The question investigators have to answer now is who signed the names.
"AFW views these potentially unauthorized transactions as the isolated acts of Mr. Weitzman," AFW said in a statement in response to my request for comment. Mr. Furst added, "AFW, its many clients and I are saddened, angered and betrayed by the apparent actions of Mr. Weitzman." The statement added, "AFW is sorry for any harm this has caused to its clients."
Getting the money back to its rightful owners would be a good way to make good on the apology. Unfortunately, neither Schwab nor AFW can yet say for sure exactly how or when that will happen. If you are an AFW client, or if you know Mr. Furst or Mr. Weitzman personally and would like to weigh in on what may have happened here, please send me a note at the e-mail address below. I hope to write about this situation again soon.
It's hard to thwart someone intent on committing a crime. But you can at least put your advisers on notice by not letting them trade on your behalf at all. That's what we did with Mr. Weitzman, simply because we don't think it is a good idea to give anyone that authority. If, for any reason, you need help putting an adviser's plan into action, have the adviser show you how to make the trades or transfers yourself on the Web site of the firm where you keep your money. Or, at the very least, make it clear, in writing, to your advisers that they are not to make any trades or transfers without your permission.
Janice Fetsch, head of compliance for Smith Barney and its fleet of stockbrokers, also warns people never to sign blank or even incomplete documents. And she tells her branch managers to be on the lookout for financial advisers who are suddenly living beyond their means. Smith Barney's brochure for clients on how to protect their accounts, which I've linked to on the Web version of this story, reads like a mini encyclopedia of investor paranoia. And I mean that as a compliment.
Credentials are supposed to mean something when selecting a financial planner. Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Furst belong to the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, an organization of financial planners who have sworn off commissions and make money only through fees they charge their clients. Members have made a lot of noise in recent years about ethics and the importance of acting as a fiduciary, in a client's best interests.
I've always believed that advisers in the association were plenty smart and morally upright, but it's hard to recommend them now without at least including an asterisk. Indeed, Mr. Weitzman isn't the only member under investigation of late. Earlier this month, the S.E.C. in a civil action accused Julie Jarvis, a financial planner in Columbus, Ohio, of stealing money from elderly clients and using it to buy property in the Caribbean.
Am I being too harsh here? "The Napfa brand hasn't changed," said Diahann W. Lassus, the group's chairwoman. "The majority of people who take the fiduciary oath sign it, mean it and live by it."
But when they don't, you may be hard-pressed to stop their fraud before it occurs. So there are a few last rudimentary tips that bear repeating. You can limit any damage by not letting a bad situation get worse. Trust but verify. Open your mail. Confirm the accuracy of your trades and fund transfers. Read your account statements. Every month. Every number. Every single word.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
"Trust but verify. Open your mail. Confirm the accuracy of your trades and fund transfers. Read your account statements. Every month. Every number. Every single word. "
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
by Ron Lieber (New York Times)
On Sunday, I returned from vacation, picked up the mail and found a disturbing letter from Charles Schwab & Company. It said that it had discovered unauthorized money transfers out of accounts associated with the financial planning firm I use.
The situation was even worse than I had feared. It was my own planner, who was under investigation for siphoning off what appeared to be millions of dollars from client accounts. And, as Schwab's note helpfully suggested, it might be a good idea to take another look at my statements for the last few years.
In case it is not glaringly obvious, I write a personal finance column for a living. I am also the kind of person who derives joy from reading the fine print on bank statements and runs spreadsheets on my credit card spending. I thought I knew what I was doing. So if I can get mixed up in something like this, trust me, it can happen to anyone.
So how did this happen?
It starts, oddly enough, with one of my old articles. In 2003, when I was at The Wall Street Journal, I did a sort of secret shopper column on seeking financial advice. My wife and I had a couple of questions that we needed to answer, and we put them to five different types of advisers.
One of them was Matthew Weitzman, who had started AFW Asset Management (now known as AFW Wealth Advisors) a few years earlier with his high school friend Jay Furst. We liked Mr. Weitzman's advice and demeanor. His disciplinary record was clean and he had gone to good schools (Cornell undergraduate, Columbia M.B.A.). While we didn't talk to him much over the next six years, his advice was always wise, and he was willing to work with us even though we had less money than his other clients.
Fast-forward to last weekend and cue my jaw hitting the floor as I realized what the note from Schwab was implying. Sure enough, the next day AFW sent me an e-mail message -- which another planner there said I should have received before the Schwab letter arrived -- offering a bit more detail.
According to AFW's note, there were "certain irregularities in a limited number of client accounts." The firm said it believed that less than 5 percent of client assets were missing but added that it might find more accounts that were short some money.
Within 24 hours of learning of the problem, AFW said, it notified the Securities and Exchange Commission, the United States attorney's office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The first two declined to confirm or deny that there was any investigation, and an F.B.I. spokeswoman did not return my calls.
AFW also said that "in a related matter," Mr. Weitzman was now on leave, was not expected to return (ever) and would have "no further contact with any client accounts."
It is too early to say exactly what happened and who is responsible. Mr. Weitzman did not respond to my repeated attempts to speak with him this week. But his lawyer, Marc Mukasey, who leads the white-collar criminal defense practice at Bracewell & Giuliani in New York, called me back. "Matt Weitzman has not been charged with a crime or any violations," he said. "We're looking forward to a resolution of this matter that satisfies everybody."
After I scoured five years' worth of account statements and crosschecked online, I found nothing missing from our Schwab accounts. But I still wanted to know, as both a reporter and a client, how others' money could disappear. So I called Schwab and asked.
Under normal circumstances, clients can allow a range of access and trading privileges on their investment accounts. Some trusting types grant full power of attorney to their advisers, even allowing check-writing privileges. Other customers allow read-only access to account statements and balances, preferring to make any trades or wire transfers themselves.
One possible explanation of what went on here, according to Schwab, is a case of forged signatures. At least one client with missing money claims never to have authorized the transfers. Yet there are signed documents granting permission to move the funds. The question investigators have to answer now is who signed the names.
"AFW views these potentially unauthorized transactions as the isolated acts of Mr. Weitzman," AFW said in a statement in response to my request for comment. Mr. Furst added, "AFW, its many clients and I are saddened, angered and betrayed by the apparent actions of Mr. Weitzman." The statement added, "AFW is sorry for any harm this has caused to its clients."
Getting the money back to its rightful owners would be a good way to make good on the apology. Unfortunately, neither Schwab nor AFW can yet say for sure exactly how or when that will happen. If you are an AFW client, or if you know Mr. Furst or Mr. Weitzman personally and would like to weigh in on what may have happened here, please send me a note at the e-mail address below. I hope to write about this situation again soon.
It's hard to thwart someone intent on committing a crime. But you can at least put your advisers on notice by not letting them trade on your behalf at all. That's what we did with Mr. Weitzman, simply because we don't think it is a good idea to give anyone that authority. If, for any reason, you need help putting an adviser's plan into action, have the adviser show you how to make the trades or transfers yourself on the Web site of the firm where you keep your money. Or, at the very least, make it clear, in writing, to your advisers that they are not to make any trades or transfers without your permission.
Janice Fetsch, head of compliance for Smith Barney and its fleet of stockbrokers, also warns people never to sign blank or even incomplete documents. And she tells her branch managers to be on the lookout for financial advisers who are suddenly living beyond their means. Smith Barney's brochure for clients on how to protect their accounts, which I've linked to on the Web version of this story, reads like a mini encyclopedia of investor paranoia. And I mean that as a compliment.
Credentials are supposed to mean something when selecting a financial planner. Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Furst belong to the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, an organization of financial planners who have sworn off commissions and make money only through fees they charge their clients. Members have made a lot of noise in recent years about ethics and the importance of acting as a fiduciary, in a client's best interests.
I've always believed that advisers in the association were plenty smart and morally upright, but it's hard to recommend them now without at least including an asterisk. Indeed, Mr. Weitzman isn't the only member under investigation of late. Earlier this month, the S.E.C. in a civil action accused Julie Jarvis, a financial planner in Columbus, Ohio, of stealing money from elderly clients and using it to buy property in the Caribbean.
Am I being too harsh here? "The Napfa brand hasn't changed," said Diahann W. Lassus, the group's chairwoman. "The majority of people who take the fiduciary oath sign it, mean it and live by it."
But when they don't, you may be hard-pressed to stop their fraud before it occurs. So there are a few last rudimentary tips that bear repeating. You can limit any damage by not letting a bad situation get worse. Trust but verify. Open your mail. Confirm the accuracy of your trades and fund transfers. Read your account statements. Every month. Every number. Every single word.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net