Named after Charles Ponzi, who infamously bilked investors out of millions of dollars in the 1920s, a Ponzi scheme is an investment scam that involves the payment of abnormally high "returns" to investors that are actually paid from money...
money and financial problems
Investor Protection Guide: Prime Bank Schemes
Prime bank fraud is a type of investment scheme that promises extremely high yields over a short period of time. Individuals claim that they have access to secret financial products which they can buy at a discount and sell at a premium. In...
Investor Protection Guide: Promissory Note Scam
In a promissory note scam, the individuals perpetrating the scam often stay behind the scenes. They persuade others to sell promissory notes by promising them large commissions. The individuals who sell the promissory notes to investors often...
Investor Protection Guide: Pyramid Scheme
A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable, illegal business model where investment returns are typically from the principal of investments or membership fees instead of from the underlying investment gains. It is often marketed as a foolproof way...
Investor Protection Guide: Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)
Systematic Investment Plans (SIP) are regulated as Periodic Investment Plans under the federal securities laws. The primary objective of a SIP is to enable investors to clearly define an investment goal and then to help them reach it. While...
Investor Protection Guide: Viaticals
A viatical settlement (also known as a life settlement) is a sale of a life insurance policy of an insured person with an abbreviated life expectancy. Sellers are typically terminally ill patients who want to cash out of their life insurance...
IRA
Individual retirement accounts (IRA) allow employees to create personal retirement accounts that receive the tax benefits of an employee sponsored 401k plan. IRAs can be created at many banks and investment companies with a variety of...
irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT)
Irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILIT) allow individuals to ensure the benefits from a life insurance policy can avoid estate taxes and follow the interests of insured. ILITs must be irrevocable, meaning the insured cannot change or undue...
jingle rule
Under common law, in determining the extent to which partnership creditors whose debts are not fully satisfied by partnership property can assert claims to the assets of individual partners, the jingle rule gave partnership creditors priority...
judgment creditor
A judgment creditor is a person or entity to whom an amount of money is owed due to a judgment that has not been paid or executed. The debt is owed by a judgment debtor and the judgment creditor may obtain discovery against the judgment...