There seems to be reasonable doubt that some of the titles being used by people to show they are qualified to help senior citizens with their financial decisions are of little value. The chairman of the Senate’s aging committee will conduct a hearing on Wednesday, September 5, to examine some of the “questionable practices used by so-called financial investment specialists.”

Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) says in a news release on the hearing that an investigation by the aging committee has revealed that many of the designations that have been cropping up represent limited or no value with respect to advising seniors on financial matters. 

Often these designations are obtained simply by attending a weekend seminar and passing an open-book, multiple-choice test.

The news release says people jump at these easily-obtained titles in order to gain access to the retirement savings of older Americans.

Many seniors targeted by salesmen using these designations have lost their life savings because they were steered toward investment instruments that were unsuitable for them, given their retirement needs and life expectancy. 

The hearing, “Advising Seniors About Their Money: Who Is Qualified - and Who Is Not?,” will be in room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

The hearing will be Webcast, beginning at 2 p.m. EST, which can be reached by a link on the committee’s webpage: www.aging.senate.gov. It is also available after the hearing.

Those scheduled to testify include:

● Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox will offer testimony about the SEC’s relatively new initiatives targeting senior investment fraud and will talk briefly about the SEC’s upcoming Senior Investment Summit scheduled to take place on September 10. 

● Minnesota’s Attorney General, Lori Swanson, will testify about her state’s efforts to eliminate senior investment fraud, and will specifically discuss complaints filed by Minnesota against companies that are inappropriately selling annuities to seniors.

● William Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, will speak about the broad range of violations his office has encountered involving questionable senior financial advisor designations. Massachusetts was the first state to conceive and impose a regulatory structure to address this complex issue. 

● Industry representatives will also be on hand to discuss the meaning of these designations, and the impact they have on the credibility of their business.