Most investors' losses were associated with an underlying product that was either frozen or collapsed, and the impact of the monetary loss was immediate on investors who did not have a financial buffer. For others, the first six months from when they discovered their loss were critical....

Every single investor in the worst affected category, which usually involved losing their house, reported serious illness following the financial loss.

The key point I took away from the reporting of this study was that  the worst-affected investors covered by the new study were in the following types of scheme:

• inner city unit developments,
• mortgage investment schemes,
• rural managed investment schemes such as forestry or horticulture,
• structured investment such as hedge funds and infrastructure funds, and
• investors who geared up against their home equity and took out margin loans to invest in assets which lost value.

My heart goes out to those who have been hurt by dreadful financial advice and I hope that the government can implement a structure to support those who were mislead or deceived.

It is also important that we all learn from the terrible misfortune of others and make sure that we are careful to properly investigate investment options and seek a second or third opinion if there is any doubt.

At A Clear Direction you can be assured that none of these investment options are in our preferred investment portfolio structure.

Regards,

Scott