FINRA Raises Concerns About Investment Fraud Targeting Seniors in 2020

Investment fraud scams targeting seniors have long been a concern for aging investors, their loved ones, and regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). With everything else going on in 2020, it would be nice to think that senior investors would get a reprieve from unscrupulous brokers and investment advisors attempting to siphon funds from their life savings. Unfortunately, this has not been the case.

This year, FINRA has published two separate articles highlighting the risk of investment fraud for seniors. The first article, published in April—relatively early on in the COVID-19 pandemic—discussed a disturbing trend of an increase in fraudulent scams targeting senior citizens. As the article explains:

“More and more, FINRA has been confronting similar fact patterns—i.e., brokers appointed beneficiaries, executors or trustees, or holding a similar position for customers. At best these arrangements present potential conflicts of interest, at worst they provide the opportunity for massive financial exploitation of (often) vulnerable senior customers.”

The second article, published in September, discusses the results of a study that found that, “overconfidence in one’s financial knowledge may contribute to risky financial behavior” among senior citizens. This, in turn, leads to exploitation by brokers and investment advisors who know that they can mislead senior investors who lack sufficient knowledge of today’s increasingly-complex investments and investment fraud scams. Incorrectly believing that they have a clear understanding of the risks associated with different types of investments, seniors may be more prone to moving forward with investment offerings without taking the time to research the offerings and truly make informed decisions.

What Should You Do if You Have Concerns About Senior Investment Fraud?

If you are concerned that you or a loved one may be a victim of senior investment fraud in 2020, what should you do? The most important thing you can do is to speak with an investment fraud attorney promptly. It may be possible to recover your (or your loved one’s) losses, but it may also be necessary to act quickly in order to do so. In many cases, unscrupulous brokers and investment advisors will set up offshore accounts and use other mechanisms in order to place misappropriated assets beyond the reach of FINRA and the U.S. courts.

However, it is also possible to recover fraudulent investment losses in many cases. At Zamansky, LLC, we have had significant success recovering fraudulent losses on behalf of seniors and other investors over the past 20-plus years, and we are continuing to represent investors in FINRA arbitration and securities fraud lawsuits during the COVID-19 crisis. If you have concerns and would like to speak with an attorney, we encourage you to contact us promptly for a free consultation.

Schedule a Free Consultation at Zamansky, LLC

To schedule a free consultation with an investment fraud attorney at Zamansky, LLC, please call 212-742-1414 or contact us online. We represent senior investors nationwide and handle most cases on a contingency-fee basis, so it costs nothing out-of-pocket to hire one of our attorneys to represent you or your loved one.