The worst financial firms don’t get that it’s YOUR money.
Why do people need to hire a cryptologist to get their OWN money back?
I wrote about this problem here.
The New York Times exposes Voya, a leading provider of 403(b) plans for teachers.
According to Ron Lieber, they have created their own form of financial Chinese water torture regarding transferring investor funds from the firm.
“One teacher, Katie Harvey, recently discovered that Voya had her first name wrong, her birthday wrong and her email wrong. Changing all of that required printing out a form and sending Voya a copy of her identification by mail.”
He continues:
“Another teacher, Sara Wilson, had been trying for four months to extract her accounts from Voya, but still hadn’t managed to finish when I spoke to her this week, even with the help of other local financial advisers. ‘It’s been very entertaining to listen in on the calls,’ she said. ‘The girl is saying words to me that I don’t understand. And my adviser keeps saying ‘Do you expect my client to understand this?””
Finally:
“Kristin Foght, who also teaches in the area, tried to move her accounts away from Voya without any expert help. She began in August. There were name-change forms since she got married along the way. Then spousal consent forms. Then demands for notarization. Then requests for a letter of acceptance from the company that would be receiving the funds. Then a requirement to fax the forms. ‘They kept telling me that they were not getting the fax,’ she said.’ And I kept saying ‘Nobody faxes anymore besides you guys!’”
We see this all the time. We tell people, “If their products were so great why would they create all of these obstacles?
You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.
Read the rest here.
Teachers and Annuities: A Questionable Match and hard Products to Shed
