Advocis is a national professional association that prepares, promotes and protects financial advisors in the public interest. We do this by providing a professional platform including career support, designations, best practices direction, education, timely information and professional liability insurance. This strengthens the relationship of trust and respect between financial advisors and their clients, the public, and government. The Association’s website is . http://www.advocis.ca.


(advocate comments.......I found this posted recently and thought it deserved a few comments for honesty and clarity:

1. "Advocis is a national professional association" Actually Advocis is "attempting' to appear as a professional association, but is actually a group of life insurance salespeople who are trying to alter their image from "life insurance salespeople" to something other, something with the word "advisor" in it and something to make the public trust them more. A name change more than a substance change. Some might call it marketing spin. Some might even call it misrepresentation.

2. "promotes and protects financial advisors" This would be correct.

3. "in the public interest" This would generally be bull.

4. "strengthens the relationship of trust and respect between financial advisors and their clients, the public, and government" Again, marketing and profits would suggest that getting the public and others to "trust" life insurance sellers, so they can sell more is correct. As far as actually delivering on the honest disclosure and professional standards required to earn this trust, that is quite debatable. The name change is something akin to putting lipstick on the pig, and your financial wellbeing would be best protected by not assuming there is anything behind it other than sales motivation.

(As with all other "self proclaimed" organizations, or those who work their way into self regulation positions, when push comes to shove and they are taken to the supreme court, the customer will learn the hard way that these organizations work 100% for their salespeople members and they "owe no duty of care for the public")

Buyer beware bigtime.

The image on the top is a cover for the Advocis magazine, while the image below is the page with the cover exposed by folding back a half flap to reveal the true motivations, SALES.

Biggest Defrauder of the Federal Government

This media release took me by surprise and I thought you might like to see it.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2010
1:16 PM

CONTACT: Public Citizen
Phone: 202-588-1000

Pharmaceutical Industry Is Biggest Defrauder of the Federal Government Under the False Claims Act, New Public Citizen Study Finds
Civil, Criminal Settlements Have Increased Dramatically; Off-Label Promotion Largely Responsible
WASHINGTON - December 16 - The drug industry has now become the biggest defrauder of the federal government, as determined by payments it has made for violations of the False Claims Act (FCA), surpassing the defense industry, which had long been the leader, according to a new Public Citizen study released today.

The study found that pharmaceutical cases accounted for at least 25 percent of all federal FCA payouts over the past decade, compared with 11 percent by the defense industry.

The fraud results were a key finding from a Public Citizen analysis of all major pharmaceutical company civil and criminal settlements on the state and federal levels since 1991 and found that the frequency with which the pharmaceutical industry has allegedly violated federal and state laws has increased at an alarming rate. Of the 165 pharmaceutical industry settlements comprising $19.8 billion in penalties during the past 20 years, 73 percent of the settlements (121) and 75 percent of the dollar amount ($14.8 billion) have occurred during the past five years.

Many of the infractions, and the single largest category of financial penalties, stemmed from the practice of off-label promotion of pharmaceuticals - the illegal promotion of a drug for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Off-label promotion can be prosecuted as a criminal offense because of the potential for serious adverse health consequences to patients from such promotional activities. Another major category of federal financial penalties was purposely overcharging for drugs under various federal programs, which constitutes a violation of the FCA.

On the state level, the largest category of financial penalties has come from companies deliberately overcharging state health programs, such as Medicaid. Public Citizen's study found this to be the most common category of violation among state settlements.

The increase in payments for fraud is likely attributable to drug companies engaging in more wrongdoing and better enforcement at the state and federal level, said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen.

"Desperate to maintain their high margin of profit in the face of a dwindling number of important new drugs, these figures show that the industry has engaged in such activities as dangerous, illegal promotion for unapproved uses of drugs and deliberately overcharging vital government health programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid," said Wolfe. Wolfe compiled and analyzed the data with physicians from the Johns Hopkins General Preventive Medicine program, Drs. Sammy Almashat and Charles Preston, as well as Columbia University public health student Timothy Waterman, all of whom worked at Public Citizen.

Public Citizen's study also found that more than one-half of the industry's fines were paid by just a few companies - GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Schering-Plough. These four companies accounted for more than half of all financial penalties over the past two decades, paying $10.5 billion in fines collectively. These pharmaceutical companies were among the largest in the world. The two largest criminal penalties ever assessed by the U.S. government against any companies were against Lilly ($515 million) and Pfizer ($1.2 billion), both in 2009.

To conduct the study, Public Citizen created a database of information about pharmaceutical companies' civil and criminal settlements, including information about the type of alleged violation and the amount of money paid in settlements. This study is the first to attempt to document and analyze all major pharmaceutical company settlements with both federal and state governments, the authors said.

Nationally, former pharmaceutical company employees and other whistleblowers have been instrumental in bringing to light the most egregious violations; they have initiated the largest number of federal settlements in the past decade. The number of federal settlements arising from whistleblower cases has more than doubled over the past five years, yielding total payouts more than two and a half times higher than in the previous 15 years combined.

Needed remedies include imposing steeper financial penalties and criminally prosecuting company leadership, including jail sentences, if merited.

"The danger to public safety and loss of state and federal dollars that comes with these violations require a more robust response," Wolfe said.

To read the full report, visit http://www.citizen.org/hrg1924.
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts.

"Yes" Men are a Dime a Dozen

I just sat in what one person in the audience called an "infomercial" for the Alberta Law Society. Put on by a very experienced, knowledgable and ethical member of the society, but an infomercial none the less.

His talk repeated the words "in the public interest" enough times to almost make one believe it was intended to make us believe that to be so. It also pointed out to us how "no one is above the law", a point which was scoffed at around our small table of eight very ordinary people.

It came across as a self serving cheerleading session intended to build public support for the idea of lawyers policing lawyers. Or self regulation. I am not an expert on the law society but I am an expert on self regulation and it usually turns out to be a great deal for the industry seeking to police themselves, and a less great deal for the "public interest". That is my own experience. I think of the young finance industry whistleblower who took his own life after learning the hard way that some people "are" more above the law than others. (see www.breachoftrust.ca video chapter six ) He found out the hard way that the law society is actually there more to protect lawyers interests than the public interest. At least that is what I found out when I complained about the lawyer who misled a calgary judge and had him sign off a private search warrant (Anton Piller order) that took away the young man's rights to even talk to police. I am sure the law society did not want that to get out when they dismissed the complaint.

Others at my table had similar feelings, one 70ish lady gave me her favorite quote about the law, which was this, "The law can be used to keep justice away".

Another pointed out the obvious which was that "of course some people are above the law". The speaker had no response to this other than to say his system is not perfect but that it had to strive for perfect ideals.

Then he should have not shown up to mislead us with his infomercial. He could instead of been an honest, candid speaker of the problems, and the initiatives they undertake to try to solve those problems. Instead he appeared as a simple 'talking Yes man" for the industry, rather than attempting to create sound, helpful discourse.

The world already has enough "yes" men. They are the most common human on the planet. When will we see an industry participant who actually questions his industry, questions poor practices, solves self serving issues?

When will we be able to listen to a speaker who has something to say, beyond how great they are, how great their profession is?

What a waste. Still. Nice guy. He just does not even know that he has assigned himself a role, an "actor" if you will, in a stage show where his is more on the side of the problem, instead of being on the side of solution.

below is a link to a 15 year old child who is doing a far better job for society:

http://dailybail.com/home/and-a-child-shall-lead-them.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyBail+%28The+Daily+Bail%29