Improving Financial Literacy in Your Community

Source: Ric Payne's Blog 

The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Ric Payne.

How much better our society would be if everyone did what is right. I choose not to watch the news much because it's so depressing but I made an exception last night and, as predicted, it was depressing. So much so that I feel compelled to share something with you.

It was a story on CBS Evening News about [a DA] who is setting out to recover money that was effectively “stolen” from a bunch of people who had received court settlements that involved the payment of an annuity over a period of time. My attention was piqued when I heard of a young African American lady who had received a settlement of $630,000 as a result of lead poisoning. It was to be payable by means of a structured annuity over 40 years. I further understand the current value of the annuity was said to be $480,000 at the time she “sold” it for $66,000! 

As practicing CPAs we know this stuff and I believe we have a responsibility to do what we can to improve the degree of financial literacy in our community. I would like to suggest that we make sure our clients know not to entertain these sorts of transactions before talking to us and we should let them know to alert their family, friends, and neighbors to do likewise.

This is not a way to generate revenue for your practice but my guess is that if you take a public position on this in your community you'll be rewarded from the excellent PR it will generate and you'll sleep well in the knowledge that you have done the “right” thing by taking on the bad guys.

For the complete entry, read “Financial literacy raises its head again.”

From Ric Payne's Blog, May 11, 2016, theconsultingaccountant.com.