Loans And Consumer Lenders

What is the 'NASD'?

The 'NASD' is the National Association of Security Dealers. They are what we call an SRO or self regulatory organization, and that organization's really established in order to make sure that brokers that handle people's assets act appropriately.

What is the 'SEC'?

The SEC is a Securities and Exchange Commission. And the Securities and Exchange Commission was established in order to enforce some laws that were set up in order to make sure that we have ordered markets and that the information is distributed appropriately to investors.

How has the role of the SEC changed since its inception?

The role of the SEC has changed quite a bit since its establishment. The SEC has become stronger and has had to become more savvy considering the changes we had in the market. We've had such a proliferation of products. I mean from the beginning we didn't have just didn't have hedge funds and how the SEC has to determine whether or not their going to regulate hedge funds. Right now most of the hedge funds are unregulated. We now have this noose financial tool that's out there, its called private equity. We have these private equity groups that are buying major companies and taking them over and was regulation and how was the SEC going to handle that. We have again what we talked about, we have a tremendous amount of dollars for retirement that are going to be striking our system in relatively short period of time and the SEC is going to have to be involved with how were going to handle those types of things from IRA rollovers to pension plans from all those types of items that the SEC going to be involved in

Can I sue a broker I feel has acted wrongfully?

I think it would be difficult to sue a broker himself. What you would most likely do is you would sue the organization that the broker works for. And also, on top of that, most of the agreements that people sign - I'm not 100% sure they even realize what they're signing, most of the time - they're signing an arbitration agreement when you set up an account at a brokerage firm and most of the time, what happens is, if there's a dispute, it goes to arbitration.

Should I have a lawyer review my mortgage papers before signing?

I think having an attorney review your mortgage statements, I think is very important. We're seeing more and more that quite a bit of an individual's assets tend to be their home. And I think to have an attorney review those documents I feel is important.

Am I breaking any financial laws if I don't pay my mortgage?

If you can't pay your mortgage, the lending institutions themselves have an opportunity to foreclose on your property. What we're seeing more and more these days, is that the organizations do not want to take over the properties. What we're seeing is that they're trying to work out some financial arrangements to continually have you pay the mortgage, so that's what we're seeing. Beyond 30 year mortgages, we're seeing 40 and 50 and 60 year mortgages. We have to remember, banks and lending institutions are not in the business of real estate. They're in the business of lending mone, and they don't want to be in the business of real estate. They don't want to claim these homes and then have to figure out how to get rid of them. They want to have you continually pay and continue on their cash flow resources.