ComplaintsforPremiere Retirement Planning & Wealth Management

• Initial Complaint

  04/26/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My wife and I wanted to report issues we have had with our financial advisor and are also filing a complaint with SEC ( Securities Exchange Commission). The complaint is we don’t believe he has honored his fiduciary responsibilities as far as his work and service ethics. I can list the issues we have had if you think this is an appropriate issue for the BBB. Please see note between us and the financial advisor for supporting documents. If this complaints does not meet the BBB requirements please let us know

  Business response

  05/07/2024

  I disagree with the entirety of this assessment and dispute.  This was my email response to the client via email:

  
  "Thank you for your email. Glad to get clarification on this matter.

  While I disagree with your assessment, I will make a short reply and not argue each point in detail.  
  

  No cookie cutter plans here, but I do have comprehensive planning that is often similar to other plans.  I use what I feel are the best products at the time of doing business.  We were in a 1-2% fixed rate environment when we met.  (There were no 5% CDs available at the time, for instance). FIAs and LIRPS offered opportunities to exceed those rates
  
  I have always been honest with you and I did in fact make suggestions to get into better products, (including Moving the Allianz (principal/penalty free) to LIRPS, or spending the principal, while keeping the bonus and income for later, and NOT taking a huge penalty with a lump sum transfer.  Since interest rates increased the past year or so, I offered to keep your liquid investment account in safe short-term bonds (now paying 5%+) and I offered a low-risk private equity fund that paid 9.5% last year that has never lost money, etc.) but you rejected them mostly and went your direction with the CDs. Which is fine if you like it better. 
  
  Due to your recent focus on fixed returns, I offered an annuity that would pay off your penalty and never pay less than 3% on fixed account.  You (Laurie) authorized us per email(s) to fill out the E-applications.   
  
  In our last review you asked me something to the effect that since you moved your managed money elsewhere and I was no longer collecting fees, you wondered if I felt it was unfair for you to have me continue reviewing and servicing the other aspects of the plan. I told you I was happy to continue managing the plan to the extent I could, notwithstanding the things you were doing on your own.  Accordingly, I thought maybe you were doing some of these things on your own like canceling policies or asking for in force illustrations because you felt uncomfortable asking us to serve you on these matters.
  
  I'm here to help those who have similar values and goals. If you believe you have a better plan than mine, or you have incongruent values or your goals have changed, I agree, you should probably go a different direction.  
  
  I have no hard feelings, and as always, I wish you the best."

   

   

  
  

  
  

  Customer response

  05/08/2024

  As is par for our past financial advisor, he has not addressed the issue’s in the original e-mail sent and owned up to the poor fiduciary efforts he provided us from the stand point of not setting up periodic reviews of our situation, educating us on the specifics of the products he put us into and following up each year to discuss the allocations of those products and whether changes should be made. If my wife and I had not contacted him each time nothing would have been done. We feel that is the responsibility of an advisor who highlights he is a certified fiduciary financial advisor. We don’t feel that we received this type of service.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩