Eric Brewster:
Ahhhhh a topic we have not discussed........this is Mutual Funds! Every major bank in the world and their branch spinoff companies may be guilty of this scamming and "skimming". Everyone that buys stock in mutual funds from banks in the whole world may be buying into what the banks are telling us. "Mutual Funds are an good solid investment in your future nest egg!" They are? I disagree............there are many reasons why I disagree!
The rush for Mutual Fund investment started about during the 80s then ran on into the 1990s on to the 2000s. Banks had to have some lure to draw customers into the stock markets and the Mutual Funds were that key!
I had an Mutual Fund with Scotia MacCloud of The Bank Of Nova Scotia, in Kentville, NS. My fund was for $3,000; I had it with them for 2.5yrs......I do not mind giving details because I no longer have it with them and I cancelled it nearly 6 years ago or so. The catch was that the Mutual Fund was calculated Semi Annually........every 4 months and the profits of my mutual fund was supposed to go back to me. UNFORTUNATELY IT DID NOT...........THE BANK AND THE MUTUAL FUND PARENT COMPANY AND IT'S BRANCH in Kentville, NS skimmed off a portion of the interest in the mutual fund for their "operating costs".
I kept track of my statements of my Mutual Fund of the Templeton Growth Fund plan with Scotia MacCloude, what I found how the fraud worked was, that every time my TGF rose to about $3,400-$3,800 on the stock market; that instead of it going back into my account......mysteriously after about 2-3 weeks I would get a statement after the fact that my fund account had lost that and slipped back down again. This got me angry and I started to question my investment councilorers, of course I kept at them and they gave me excuses that "Oh the Stock Market had dropped down alot, it would rise up again.....though so hold faith with us!" For 2 and ahalf years I kept at it.
Finally investors like me started to smell a rat in Scotia MacCloude, enough investors got angry enough and made a stink; so they held an special meeting at Acadia University with all us investors there. I met a Trade School teacher there by the name of Mr. Harvey......a great teacher, unfortunately he was like me that he invested money into the Mutual Fund of the Templeton Growth Fund............$10,000! Like me he found flaws in the accounting practices. We investors were there most of us to find out from the head people of the TGF why we were not getting what they had promised to us. Of course we were sweetened and petted but I made up my mind to take my money out of the fund, I waited for a month then when my fund went up to $3,800 again on the stock market; I cancelled it with the company and cleared $3,780 after fees. Is Mutual Funds a scam? IT SURE IS A SCAM......all nice and legal!