What is securefamily.org?

[drm604]

I just saw this ad on MSNBC:

It definitely has a bad smell to it:

"Family"
"Security"
The evil government making life more difficult.

All hallmarks of some kind of corporate disinformation.

So I decided to research a little further. I checked ownership of the domain securefamily.org.

https://who.godaddy.com/whoisstd.aspx?domain=securefamily.org&prog_id=GoDaddy&k=yxtt0Qkxct78vOj3WtCRioxThOC5HoztvKV32SJnbrZqV%2fPh0EpX97XWojkEJGZu

It shows that the registrant name is AALU and the contact email uses the domain aalu.org.

If you go to http://aalu.org/ you'll see that it's an organization of life insurance professionals. Interesting. Why is the insurance industry oh so concerned about your financial plans?

On securefamily.org, they ask you to "TELL CONGRESS TO FIX THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FIDUCIARY REGULATIONS" and they make it easy for you to send a form letter to Congress asking them to do so.

They don't explain what exactly these regulations are except to say that it will limit your access to certain types of investments and information about investments. I'm pretty sure that what's really happening is that the regulations will stop them from selling you bad investments and giving you misleading information.

Anyone know what this is about? What are these new regulations and why is the insurance industry trying to mislead us into opposing them? Considering how desperate the insurance industry appears to be to stop them, they're probably something that we want. If we can determine that these regulations are actually a good thing then we should support them.

The form at http://securefamily.org is prefilled with the message they want you to send to Congress, but it is possible to customize your message before sending it. You can entirely replace the message with your own. If these regulations are in reality a good thing for the average person, then we should all use the form to send a message supporting the regulations instead of the message they want us to send.

Anyone know anything about these regulations?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. I'm thinking you've hit the nail on the head.

It's another front group designed to get people to badger Congress to allow them to continue scamming people and sell them junk.

[Annie1962]

2. New regulation to help consumers

Here is a link to help explain reason behind TV commercials.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WB-57299

New rule/law is to help consumers.

[wwway]

3. What regulations?

I saw 2 adds tonight on MSNBC from Secure Families and was immediately concerned. With a do nothing congress that isn't willing to put forth anything but deregulation how can there be any regulation proposed that we should be concerned about? I think this is about efforts to kill all of what remains of Dodd/Frank legislation that has languished and slowly been killed off or put on a shelf. Financial institutions and insurance companies selling us products don't want to be told that they have to reveal anything. After all, as Republicans say, the "free market" means let the buyer be ware and it's not up to the seller to be honest. It's another way to swindle us out of life savings. I clearly view this Secure Families organization as a scam designed to scare voters into supporting something that is clearly (to me anyway) designed to slit our throats.

[drm604]

4. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Welcome to DU.

[sakabatou]

24. Welcome to the forum

[HelpThePeople]

5. MSNBC Should be Ashamed

Wonder how much MSNBC gets paid for this propaganda.

[vilnisschulz]

7. Yeah disgusting but

it's just the tip of the iceberg. The anti-Iran Deal commercials running on MSNBC range from disingenuous to deceptive to damn lies.

[annabanana]

11. Those are in heavy rotation, too..

blanketing the airwaves...

lotta money...

[vilnisschulz]

6. Good instincts

One should always first assume any vague, fear inspiring call to action to "Tell Congress..." is not in the interest of the little guy but probably only in the interest of some powerful interest group who wants to keep doing whatever the hell they want to do, or start doing whatever the hell they want to, usually with bad to terrible results for average citizens. So, be skeptical.

I found this straightforward article explaining the regulation USDOL wants to put in place:

[link:http://www.erisapracticecenter.com/2015/04/21/the-u-s-department-of-labors-new-proposed-rules-defining-fiduciary-investment-advice/]

Sounds to me like insurance companies want to allow a class of financial advice-givers to NOT be classified as advice givers so they don't need to be held accountable for the advice they give to their trusting clients. Sounds like a road to riches for a select few, and financial disaster for a lot of ordinary Americans.

[MadashellLynn]

8. Funny I saw it too and

I didn't know what it was referring to but my reaction was a loud "FUCK YOU" to the TV. Just the tone and flavor of it said corporate bullshit to me.

[drm604]

9. It seems so transparent doesn't it?

I suppose there must be people who fall for it, otherwise why pay to run them?

I do wonder why anyone in Congress would be swayed by the emails generated from these types of campaigns. Surely they recognize that the emails don't really represent the opinions of their constituents.

[annabanana]

10. They want the right to lie to people in the guise of "financial advice".

The CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) whose regs they're bitching about is Elizabeth Warren's work. .

http://www.consumerfinance.gov/

those evil regulations....

[Recursion]

19. Actually CPFB wasn't a part of this particular one

This was all Department of Labor, because of the workplace component to the traditional IRAs.

[bullwinkle428]

12. The "protect family security" is clearly designed to sound like "protect

Social Security" to the low-information people out there - these ads had the stench of Koch money behind them, as far as I'm concerned.

[Lulevine]

15. Securefamily.org ads

I think you have got something there.

[neglorpf]

13. Another load of BS propaganda

It's amazing how much advertising MSNBC has accepted, between this, the deluge of anti-Iran deal spots, and those all time favorites in the early morning "We are Koch". This is why I have changed my favorite cable channel to Cartoon Network.

Anyone notice how many Republicans have suddenly appeared on MSNBC lately, like cockroaches in the kitchen at 3 a.m. when the light goes out? That's all they need - another place to regurgitate their polluted talking points.

As for contacting Congress, I'm so close to registering as an Independent that it isn't funny.

[drm604]

14. What do you achieve by registering as an independent?

You lose your ability to vote in the primary, but you gain nothing.

[REP]

17. Not true; I'm an Independent and all I have to do is ask for a partisan ballot

I'm in California; I was able to do that in Missouri, too.

[Scooter0211]

16. These are old ads

My research found that these ads have aired before:
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7wMy/americans-to-protect-family-security-secure-family
I dont trust these ads at all

[annabanana]

20. Back in very heavy rotation in NY market..... n/t

[drm604]

25. I saw it in the Philly suburbs,

but I saw it on MSNBC, which is a national network. I'm not sure if they show the same ads countrywide or not.

[Recursion]

18. The long, wonkish answer to what this is about

First off, your BS meter is working correctly.

Secondly, here's the Labor Department's video on it:

http://www.dol.gov/featured/protectyoursavings/

And here, for instance, is the stockbrokers' trade association's complaints about it:

http://www.sifma.org/issues/savings-and-retirement/dol-fiduciary-standard/overview/

To (as briefly as possible) describe the issue here:

1. Currently, whoever is the broker for your IRA can make commissions on the stuff you buy through his plan, and does not have to inform you of any conflict of interest that creates, because the relationship of broker is not "fiduciary" (meaning he does not have a legal financial responsibility to you).

2. DOL proposed in 2010, and has recently released a draft, of an amended rule under the auspices of a law called ERISA, which makes most brokers of IRAs fiduciary (this makes possible malpractice claims against them), but does allow them to continue to make commissions provided certain transparency requirements are met (labor activists had wanted a complete removal of commissions). The rule would also strongly preference fee-based IRA brokering rather than commission-based.

3. The original rule made more sense in the 1970s, when defined-benefit pensions were more common and individual retirement accounts were sort of innovative novelties that were assumed to be riskier (and so, potentially more profitable for both investors and brokers).

4. The financial industry's complaint about this is, obviously, that they will make less money, but they have to couch that in different terms. Less money will probably mean fewer offerings, in the long run (that is how these things work), so they say it will "limit consumer choice". This will probably make traditional IRAs somewhat more expensive for businesses to offer, so there will on the margins be somewhat fewer of them.

5. This doesn't affect your ability to go to a broker and buy any stock you want (you can do that online right now), either with your own after-tax money or with a Roth IRA; this only affects what brokers and "advisors" to traditional IRAs provided by employers can do.

So, to sum it up in a somewhat over-simplified way: the Department of Labor has proposed a rule that requires the broker for your traditional IRA to act in your best interest rather than his own, and the brokers oppose that rule for reasons that are fairly obvious.

[starfire2015]

21. secure family and its mission

The intent of 'secure family org' is prevent congress from passing legislation that would require insurance industry people to AVOID any fiduciary responsibility as to the products sold to you.
In other words, the insurance industry does not have to have your best interests in mind when selling you such junk products as 'whole life', 'variable life' and 'annuities' etc

[PatSeg]

22. Thank you

I just Googled this as well. I was suspicious as soon as I saw "family", as that is usually used by the right-wing. I was frustrated that they didn't explain what people are suppose to be concerned about. I hate these kinds of ads - vague, evasive, and threatening.

[hifiguy]

23. You're right. This stinks and shines

like a mackerel rotting in the moonlight.

Corporate disinformation to be sure.

[HassleCat]

26. They want to lose your money

The insurance industry got into investments back in the 1980s. Reagan (worst president ever) helped them do away with many of the limits on the types of investments they could sell, and they started pedaling mutual funds and stuff like that. I suppose they're trying to expand their range, again, so they can sell junk bonds and derivatives. I don't know that, but I assume the worst. I always assume the worst when somebody pops up with one of those "call your congress person" campaigns. Edit: I see from the posts above they are trying to avoid fiduciary responsibility. That makes sense. I mean it makes sense they would want to do that, not that it would make sense to help them.