naperville-tv.com

This from the WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB119335472901272206.html

Marketers Use Trickery to Evade No-Call Lists

Mailings Fool Seniors Into Accepting Pitches;States Launch Charges

The technique is centered on a marketing tool called the lead card, and it became popular after the federal government created its Do Not Call Registry in 2003 to shield consumers from unwanted solicitors. Sent through the mail, the lead card invites the recipient to mail off an enclosed reply for free information about, say, estate planning.

But the cards fail to warn that by sending off replies, recipients are giving up their right to avoid telephone solicitations from the sender — even if their phone numbers are on the Do Not Call list.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has tried to get a pesky solicitor off the phone during dinner. But what is surprising is the persistence of sales people to get around the intent of the list.

“When Naomi and Horace Williams got a postcard warning that estates of older Americans could be wiped out by taxes unless they moved quickly, they believed it came from AARP, the Washington-based lobbying group for older Americans, since it said that “AARP found” probate taxes were hurting seniors.

So the Williamses filled out a reply card that promised more information and mailed it to a post-office box in Washington, D.C. Soon after came a phone call from a man saying he wanted to drop by their North Carolina home to deliver the information they’d requested. It never occurred to the Williamses — who had registered on the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call Registry — that the caller was a marketer. They assumed he was affiliated with AARP, they say.”

As it turned out, the actual sender of the card had been America’s Recommended Mailers Inc., a company housed in a Lewisville, Texas, strip mall that provides leads to insurance agents nationwide.

Soon after they mailed the reply, a living-trust marketer, and then an insurance agent, showed up at the couple’s Morganton, N.C., home, Mr. Williams said in an affidavit filed in state Superior Court in Raleigh. Mr. Williams, an 83-year-old retired factory worker, says the agent talked him into transferring much of the couple’s $179,000 nest egg into annuities that barred them from tapping the bulk of their money, unless they paid high penalties, until Mr. Williams was nearly 90.

The commission on such products is typically 9.5%.

Ouch!- That product might not be “suitable” & could create some problems for Mr Williams lifestyle.

More importantly, the regulators have rules in place to counter such fraudulent activities and protect investors, and their  remedies usually are “consumer friendly”

The marketer and the insurance agent worked for American Family Prepaid Legal Corp., an Irvine, Calif., living-trust provider, and its related insurance marketing company, which filed an affidavit generally denying wrongdoing as well as an affidavit from the living-trust salesman denying the Williamses’ claim.

The agent received his lead from the postcard reply, according to North Carolina court filings. Meanwhile, the Texas attorney general is suing America’s Recommended Mailers for alleged misrepresentations in its pitches. The company disputes the allegation, saying it merely quoted AARP.

Nonetheless, it says it is revising its cards. After hiring a lawyer and complaining, the Williams obtained the return of their nest egg.

Thankfully.

This and other cases of fraud are as old as mankind.

The common sense case is simple: Be proactive with your own finances, estate, insurance, any family issues… and hire trusted advisers yourself, on your own terms.

If someone is coming to you, out of the blue, stating they can solve any of your issues -esp., those relating to anything dealing with money, stop…it might even sound interesting, just stop!

See this as a warning sign, that you may not have done enough homework for yourself, relating to the solution being suggested.

Get informed on your terms, with trusted advisors recommended by people you trust. Even then, educate yourself on the basics of the issue. ( trust,estate,probate,investing,insurance) etc.

Seek out your own trusted advice, before an adviser seeks out you.

Well, its (not) official.

School district 204’s cat and mouse game, to buy a cherished piece of real estate for a brand new high school, played out last night, after a special session headed by board president Mark Metzger.

“”The board has explored what options exist to build Metea Valley at the Brach-Brodie site and given the growth in material costs and anticipated labor cost increases, the only options for the building on Brach-Brodie within available proceeds involve substantial reductions in the building such as eliminating the pool or athletic facilities,” Metzger said. “We believe the community expects Metea to be a full featured facility making those options unacceptable.

A jury previously sided with the owners of the Brach-Brodie site and offered the land to 204 for $518,000 an acre.

“We have therefore concluded we cannot and will not buy the 55 acres for the jury’s price,” Metzger said Thursday following a special board meeting.

So what happened here?

My guess is that someone, or some collective group of people, presumably associated with school board 204, and all acting with limited information,( grade population growth, questionable projections);

1. hyped up the basic need case for a high school in the first place, ( vote for me !) while,
2. to support their belief, hired and paid lawyers, consultants and advisers, ( who all need to eat), and
3. sold the idea to taxpayers (twice) from a fear-based perspective. “overcrowding, bad learning environments, doom, gloom”
4. repeated the mantra, “For the kids, remember the kids!” over and over, until memories of the world before child labor laws were enacted,which overcame the audience.

A fear-based approach is never a good model to build a new investment around, especially when so much money is at stake. And the economics should match your original proposal for such an ambitious spend, right?

But here, the folks in charge of the spending, just keep on spending - presumably to help us get over our fears.

“School Board 204 filed a post-trial motion Thursday in DuPage County asking for a new trial in the condemnation case. “- Naperville Sun

Now our elected officials are using the cheap and cost effective court system, to right the evils of wrong judgments and win over the evil capitalist real estate trusts. Again, presumably for the Kids.

Metzger said the post-trial motion is based on several things, including evidence the judge let into trial, witnesses and instructions given to the jury. The Brach-Brodie attorneys will have time to respond to the motion and Metzger said it could be several months before it is all sorted out.

Sounds like somebody feels an injustice has been done, and its gonna take a long time to figure out a way to work the system again.

TAXPAYER BEWARE!

The first time this new high school bond came up, it was voted down.

Then, as the board did not agree with the general population, a new group started a campaign to right the wrong!( for the kids) -to get the badly needed new and glorious school.

Armed with enough legal paperwork and feasibility study materials to actually build the new high school foundation, the board made a new and improved case, targeting the (wink) key voter subsets and divisions, held another vote and magically, this time, it passed.

“Our staff looked into what possibilities we had and what happens if we purchased 55 acres on Brach-Brodie to have the building come within available proceeds,” Metzger said. “To make that number happen was much, much, much bigger than any of us anticipated.”

Was “much,much,much bigger” in the proposal to taxpayers?

Did it occur to anyone that if you were going to go to the taxpayer for such a large sum ( or any sum), that perhaps someone had better have a good estimate on the financing to build out ?

Are 204 taxpayers that easily sold by emotional sale jobs and slight of spreadsheet? Are checkbooks always open ?

Where is the fiscal accountability ?

A new High School may, or may not, be the right thing for 204.

But the curse of the case for building this new High School, under the original plan, is an old one, and for some strange and obscure reasons, its time has come and gone.

Move on 204, move on.

The Board should cut their losses, while they still can, to retain minimal credibility on this, and someone should be questioned as to the boards internal business process for proposing a tax increase in the first place on such faulty forecasting.

As the 204 board is to be a trusted guardian for education tax receipts ( tax payer money) and, ultimately for our kids education, its getting a little scary.

http://blogs.suburbanchicagonews.com/newsblog/2007/10/dist_204_back_at_square_one.html