When Brokers Want to Move Your Money Out of a Very Good Thing

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

So far this year, here’s what our friends in the federal government have done for — and to — citizens who hope to find simple ways to save enough money for retirement without anyone robbing them blind.

■ Continued a yearslong fight against a rule that requires many retirement advisers to act in their clients’ best interests.

■ Reversed a rule that would have made it easier for states to create retirement savings plans for people who don’t have one at work.

■ Abandoned a new federal program to help lower-income savers, young ones in particular.

This week, meanwhile, brought news of the Securities and Exchange Commission standing up for — wait for it — federal employees and their retirement money! Those workers have what is probably the best retirement plan of its kind in the country, called the Thrift Savings Plan. The S.E.C. accused four brokers in Georgia and a firm they represented of fraud after they allegedly persuaded about 200 people to move money out of the plans and put the funds in expensive annuities, earning hefty commissions.

So this is how things work now: More hurdles for everyday workers and a fabulous plan for federal employees — so good, in fact, that the alleged perpetrators here needed to cheat, according to the S.E.C., to get people to abandon it. We should all have such nice things, and we may yet someday. But meanwhile, sit back and take in the details, as they hold lessons for all of us.

 

 

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