Negligent financial Advice
Metro Group has 2 employees, a CPA and an insurance agent named Julius Lewis who sells annuities and life insurance policies. My long term best friend recommended him, and so I talked to him on the phone. I asked if there was anything that I could sell my mutual funds without causing any capital gains that I could use for retirement savings. I told him repeatedly the funds were NOT IN AN IRA, and sent him a form showing him that. Despite this, he believed they were in an IRA, but never informed of that. Going on his incorrect assumption, and without double checking with me or looking at my form OR sending me a copy of the contract that listed them as being in an IRA, he sold me an annuity. He never met with me in person, and never disclosed he was making a commission or how much it was, which are breaches of an insurance agent's duty. He also put false answers down on the contract as he never reviewed those questions, never reviewed types of annuities and how they worked. I never got a copy of the contract until 3 weeks after it was sent to my broker. Even then, I had asked repeatedly for a copy of anything Vanguard had as Vanguard fraudulently sent the annuity company $15k of my money on 8/9 and he insisted he had nothing. I got nothing until September 1. Had I seen this contract, I would have stopped the sale. Had he told me he thought my money was in an IRA, I would have stopped the sale. He even told me he heard me tell him the mutual fund sale was taxable, but did not believe me. Why would anyone use a fincial advisor so careless that does not believe their own client? And why would I want to sell my IRA to buy an annuity if I was already in a retirement vehicle? And if he thought the money was in an IRA, why didn't he open the form I had showing what the mutual funds were? And what kind of financial advisor doesn't send the client the contract to review BEFORE sending it off? This man is careless and negligent. He caused me a loss of $50000. Initially, he said he would make up the losses, but he changed his mind when he found out how high they are. Do yourself a favor and use someone else.