‘Weeds’ storyline re: SEC was ‘terrific’

As an avid InvestmentNews reader, an avid viewer of the television series “Weeds” and a former Securities and…

As an avid InvestmentNews reader, an avid viewer of the television series “Weeds” and a former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement attorney who now defends SEC investigations, I appreciate the article about the show in the Sept. 12 issue (“What was Showtime smoking?”).

That whole storyline about the hedge fund accountant and the SEC cracked me up. The superhero hearing, the wire, the dressing-down by Kevin Nealon — it was terrific.

Howard J. Rosenburg

Partner Kopecky
Schumacher & Bleakley PC
Chicago

Succession column appeared at right time

A few weeks ago, the lead topic in our client newsletter was that of succession planning.

My partner, Steve Medland, and I are strong believers in having skin in the game with our clients and “walking the walk.” We finally finished an agreement that we had been working on that put life insurance in place to buy each other out in the event of one of our deaths.

We shared this information with our clients so they would know what would happen should this ever occur. We wanted to be part of the 11% of our industry who actually have a plan in place.

The day after our letter went to the printer, I was reading the Just Thinking column “Advisers need to practice what they preach” (Aug. 29) and how important it is for financial advisers to do this.

So at least one of your readers is listening.

Bob Kargenian
President and principal
TABR Capital Management LLC
Orange, Calif.

There must be a ‘gotcha’ with stable-value funds

I read “Looking under the stable-value-fund hood” (Sept. 26).

As the commercial used to say, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” Equating five dimes to one dollar is a losing proposition; it is just a matter of who loses.

Insurance contracts/guarantees have to be written to protect the insurance company. Otherwise, insurance companies would go bankrupt.

It is really that simple. There has to be a gotcha in stable value, and it can’t be felt by the insurance companies since they are the counterparties.

Harm to the insurer is harm to the buyer.

A couple more adages apply, such as: “There is no free lunch,” and, “If it appears to be too good to be true, it probably is.”

Ron Surz

President
PPCA Inc.
Target Date Solutions
San Clemente, Calif.

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