Now the firm is finally suffering for its anti-American behavior. Payback is a bitch, isn't it? (Investment News):
First Command is “imploding” and “losing reps right and left,” said an executive at another broker-dealer, who asked not to be identified. “The leadership of the organization is so extremely into antiquated products, there’s nobody there who knows how to lead them into being a modern company,” the executive said.
[First Command spokesman] Mr. [Mark] Leach did not say how many registered representatives remain affiliated with the firm, but the executive from another broker-dealer, who asked not to be identified, said that First Command had fewer than 300 reps. Last year, the firm confirmed that it had 450 reps.
The article also notes that "Lamar Smith, the firm’s chief executive, has been replaced as chairman by Jim Lanier, a board member who until 2000 worked under Mr. Smith as president."
How did Lamar Smith get access to sell criminally overpriced life insurance to soldiers? Maybe it had something to do with his generous contributions to George W Bush, who needlessly put the soldiers in harm's way in the first place. Allowing First Command to sell such "antiquated" (i.e., criminally overpriced) products was okay in Bush's mind because he pretends to support the troops by wearing uniforms and such. Not only did Bush not support the troops, he let Lamar Smith swindle them.
After five years of war, replacing Lamar Smith now is too little, too late.
If you are a soldier — do not invest with First Command. It's that simple. Not because a liberal blogger said so, but because they charged soldiers on their way to war commissions so disgustingly high they no longer exist in the civilian world. Do you think you deserve to pay an astronomically higher commission than civilians for an investment you probably don't even need?
Ask yourself: Why did First Command stop charging such commissions? Bad conscience keeping them awake at night? Bush administration looking out for the welfare of the troops?
Nah, they just got caught. But not by the Bush government. By the so-called liberal press and the financial services industry itself.
