FINRA Offers Education on Early Retirement Scams

April 22, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has launched two online resources to help companies and their older workers protect themselves from early retirement scams.

According to a FINRA announcement, “Help Your Employees Achieve Their Retirement Dream: Tips for Spotting Early Retirement Scams,” offers tips on how to evaluate the financial professionals involved in early retirement seminars and the seminar materials such as invitations, slides, handouts, and scripts. Companies may also send early retirement seminar materials to FINRA for review if they have concerns, the announcement said.

The second resource “Early Retirement Seminars 101: Smart Tips for Spotting Retirement Scams,” alerts employees to the pitfalls of early retirement schemes.

FINRA said it launched the resources in the wake of two major FINRA enforcement actions that involved multi-million-dollar fines and tens of millions in restitution to employees, and additional investigations are currently underway.

The resources are available at  www.finra.org/investor and from the Society for Human Resource Management at  www.shrm.org/financialliteracy .

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