SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 20, 2009 — Paladin (http://www.paladinregistry.com), a five-year-old Registry of pre-screened financial advisors and financial planners, recently launched InvestorWatchdog ), a blog site that focuses on unethical business practices in the financial services industry that include illegal investment schemes and scams, bad investment products, conflicts of interest, bad financial advice, misrepresentation, omission and anti-investor regulations.
Jack Waymire, co-founder of InvestorWatchdog and author of the highly regarded book "Who's Watching Your Money?" (ISBN 0471476994, John Wiley & Sons, 2003), said: "InvestorWatchdog is a direct result of the Madoff Securities scandal in 2008. 11,000 investors lost $65 billion in this Ponzi scheme. Hundreds of thousands of additional investors have lost untold billions of dollars due to scams, conflicts of interest and deceptive sales tactics. And, even investors, who weren't directly impacted by some of the more publicized scams, still lost half of the assets since 2007 because they received bad advice or invested in bad financial products."
Waymire added, "Investors need a source they can trust to increase their awareness and help them avoid legal and illegal investment products that undermine the achievement of their financial goals. If 11,000 investors had this resource they would not have invested with Madoff Securities. Investors should also be able to ask questions and obtain honest answers that help them make quality decisions. An interactive blog site is the perfect solution for the timely dissemination of this type of information. Plus, investors can read about the experiences of other investors and learn how to avoid making their mistakes."
Paladin has spent years developing a national network of pre-screened financial advisors who are RIAs or IARs, acknowledged fiduciaries, have clean compliance records, and are compensated with fees like other professionals. This network of planners, advisors, money managers, CPAs, and estate attorneys are the foundation of a national early warning system that investors can use to avoid schemes, scams and bad advice. Articles written by the professionals are published on the blog site and they are available to interact with investors who have questions or concerns about investment products and the financial advice they are being sold.
About Paladin Registry
Founded in 2003, Paladin is an information company that provides free public services to investors who use the services of Certified Financial Planners, financial advisors, fee-only financial advisors, money managers, investment and financial education service providers, CPAs, estate attorneys, and insurance professionals. Paladin websites help investors find advisors in their communities and screen them before they meet them. You can learn more about Paladin's blog services by visiting , or go to http://www.PaladinRegistry.com or http://www.PaladinFinancialDirectory.com for additional information. Follow InvestorWatchdog on Twitter at http://twitter.com/investwatchdog.
Media Contact:
Jack Waymire
Paladin Internet Properties, Inc.
Email
916.253.3334
# # #