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First Command's slap on the wrist. Even when they get caught, First Command's shit still smells like roses (Yahoo News):

NASD announced today that it has censured and fined First Command Financial Planning Inc., a Fort Worth, TX broker-dealer, $12 million for making misleading statements and omitting important information when selling mutual fund investments with up-front sales charges of up to 50 percent through a monthly installment method known as a "Systematic Investment Plan."

From that $12 million, First Command is ordered to pay restitution to thousands of customers who purchased a Systematic Investment Plan between Jan.1, 1999 and the present who terminated the plan and paid an effective sales charge greater than 5 percent. All money remaining will be payable to the NASD Investor Education Foundation, to be used for the investor education needs of members of the military and their families. The Foundation will use the funds to support educational programs, materials and research to help equip members of the military community with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed investment decisions. It is anticipated that the Foundation will receive approximately $8 million.

I first started writing about this problem sixteen months ago.

Unfortunately, $12 million is nothing when you consider that they have sold these "plans" to hundreds of thousands of military families.

To put this all in perspective, let's just take a wild guess that 300,000 military personnel were affected. A fine of $12 million works out to...





Wait for it...





Forty bucks per soldier.

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