Let’s get three facts straight:

• The following 67 shark repellents show how to protect yourself from unsolicited financial salespeople. From the introduction, I repeat that Fee-only financial advisors who charge by the hour and sign fiduciary* oaths are not sharks.

• Don’t expect bad financial advice “repellant” from Uncle Sam, Departement of Labor or the Securities and Exchange Commission any time soon. Within a minute after the new administration took over in 2017, the regulations protecting investors had to go. So, the financial sharks swarmed all over DC pressing our lawmakers to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) click here for details. Even under the regs, Obama administration put in place as a direct result of the 2008 financial disaster, the 403(b) world with public PreK-12, protection of any kind did not and still does NOT exist! In fact, there are state laws that protect the rights of insurance agents coming on campus and straight into your classroom, and saying ANYTHING to get the teacher’s signature on an inappropriate and costly retirement product.

• Most working Americans will be approached by any means possible by sharks:
  • Flyers in the mail offering free meals
  • In the K-12 classroom, it is not uncommon for agents to walk into your classroom during your prep or recess time!
  • Flyers or business cards left in your work mailboxes trying to sell you a retirement plan or are some type of pension specialists
  • Some financial specialists dressed in a dark suit sitting like lounge lizards in your cafeteria
  • All will claim unabashedly he or she will assist you FOR FREE!

For your information, genuine fiduciary financial advisors with a Certified Financial Planner Certificate do not solicit K-12 teachers.

What these salespeople really want is a steady percentage of your pie year after year for the rest of your working career. Unfortunately, most Americans hired this shark because he or she was nice and took the time to come to their place of business to explain and plan their retirement without taking too much time from busy schedules.

The best example of this sad state of affairs is my profession. Since 1961, PreK-12 Public School Educators have a sordid history of conflicted, inappropriate retirement products, and costly financial advice. It is called the 403(b) world and the conflicting financial advice has not been abetted one iota. There are everywhere on school district turf.

If you don’t believe me about this series, heck I understand. But the author of many financial books including “What Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know” and financial adviser, Larry Swedroe, on his review of my book Late Bloomer Millionaires wrote: Appendix C which covers 67 key points showing you the difference tween the loser’s game Wall Street wants you to play–short-term thinking/sales pitches–and the winners fame of long-term thinking/objective information, is worth the price of the book by itself.

Still not convinced? In 2020 will the 20th anniversary of the best financial article ever published on the wholly-conflicted 403(b) tax-deferred retirement plan for public school teachers. My former national teacher’s union American Federation of Teachers (AFT) published “Shark Attack!”  Now, why would my former union call those so-called 403(b) financial advisers SHARKS?

All of the shark repellent your will ever need is found in the following 67 tips. You will not need any government program to protect you.

Enjoy my repellant for the day for the next two months!

Let the SERIES BEGIN!

Number 1 out of 67

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Stephen’s Bio

Stephen A. Schullo, Ph.D. (UCLA ’96) taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for 24 years and UCLA Extension teaching educational technology to student teachers. Steve wrote investment articles for the United Teacher-Los Angeles (UTLA) union newspaper for 13 years. He has been featured and quoted in many mainstream media articles about 403(b) plans, including the Los Angeles Times, NY Times, and U.S. News and World Report. He co-founded an investor self-help group 403bAware for teacher colleagues and wrote 7,500 posts in three investment forums since 1997.

He testified at California State legislative hearings and honored with the “Unsung Hero” award by his teacher’s union for his retirement planning advocacy. For the last 14 years, he serves as a volunteer on LAUSD’s Investment Advisory Committee as a “Member-at-Large” and former co-chair. The committee contains collective bargaining reps from the unions and monitors the district’s tax-deferred retirement plans, 457b/403b, of 55,000 former and current LAUSD employees, worth $2.8 billion in total assets.

He started this blog in 2012 to help all PreK-12 public school educators nationwide, especially his Los Angeles Unified School District colleagues. He belongs to a small national group of 403(b) advocates (mostly teachers) who want to bring closer attention to the 403(b). During the last 25 years, 38 newspaper articles have been published and each one says the same thing, TSAs (Tax Sheltered Annuities) are terrible 403(b) plans and the salesperson gets the benefit from lucrative commissions and high costs. Nobody in educational leadership reads these articles NOR talk about the proper place for annuity products publically.

We come together at 403bwise.com and 403bwise Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/349968819000560/ Come on over if you want to join us so we can help our colleagues avoid these self-conflicted and high-cost Tax-sheltered Annuities (TSAs). Steve is the author of two books, Late Bloomer Millionaires and Fighting Powerful Interests: Educators Challenge Tax-sheltered Annuities and WIN!, a story of how a handful of LAUSD educators struggled for years to improve the 403(b) to no avail.

But we never quit! We were instrumental in LAUSD’s implementation of the new 457(b) plan and earned a very rare, but very precious “Plan Design” award. For a copy of both books, email Steve at steve.schullo@latebloomerwealth.com and he will happily email you both books, FREE with no obligation except to read them and get informed, in a pdf file format.