You turn on the radio and hear the same host week after week offering financial advice, chatting and answering questions posed by guests, and everything seems legit and trustworthy. But this is no ordinary radio show. What many listeners don’t understand is that the host has paid the station for the time slot, and the show is an advertisement created with the sole purpose of making sales and gathering clients. Even if listeners know the program amounts to an ad or infomercial, they may not be aware of the sketchy track records—personal bankruptcies, allegations of misleading clients and Ponzi schemes—accumulated by some of the radio hosts.
Parenting magazine paired up three financial advisors with three families that have serious financial troubles. They’ve all been blogging about the experience since October. There’s plenty of good advice to be gathered from the posts, but what’s most fascinating is that these stories are really real.
