Being retail investors, my wife and I typically look for secure investments that provide the opportunity for growth and/or income. We rely on our broker for accurate, professional and honest advice when considering a new investment as well as doing our own due diligence (with the resources we have). We had been buying preferred stock all rated A or better in our IRA accounts as part of a diversified portfolio on the advice of our broker Terry E Adelmann.
Everything was rolling along fine until the huge financial meltdown that everyone is already familiar with happened. Now, we do not blame our broker for not seeing any of the problems coming, or for not being ahead of the curve and suggesting we change our portfolio - his advice was no better than probably 90% of the guys out there looking to hustle a sale in that business. What we do blame him for is:
1. Lying about the safety and suitability of an investment in Fannie Mae. He pushed us into the preferred stock saying it was "as good as government paper". We trusted that since his firm was underwriting the issue they and he had done due diligence. This was shortly before the company was taken over before the government. After the take over we called (repeatedly) to see what the firm's position was - when he finally called back, his answer was "well you can always sue". When we escalated the issue he first lied about having suggested the stock until we pointed out the the order was marked SOLICITED (meaning the broker made the suggestion), then he stopped returning calls. This issue is now part of a class action suit.
2. The other issue is that this guy is dangerously lazy! We asked repeatedly for him to review holdings in several accounts for suitability after the market started heading south - when he did show up to work at all, he never got around to actually doing any work, leaving us to muddle though on our own. He was even a laughing stock to his own assistant Michelle Fierro who was embarassed on his behalf because he never showed up to work. At one point he actually said "well if I had checked this out and made any receommendations you might not have followed them anyway"... Yes, he really did say that!
3. He repeatedly did not enter orders as requested by phone and email.in one case we went 4 weeks trying to get this guy to place sell orders. We finally ended up placing them with someone else in the firm. His excuse - "well they are not close to that price"... Unbelievable. Anyone knows how quickly prices can swing these days.
In conclusion, avoid doing business with Terry Edward Adelmann - you will get burned eventually! I believe he is now with Ameriprise in Scottsdale AZ.
We ended up firing him (and the frim) and moving to a different firm.
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