World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

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Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and Hoss Cents Free Financial Money Magazine is proud to support the international effort against elder abuse, especially financial fraud.

Senior’s are sometimes convinced to invest in investments well outside their risk tolerance level, which is a strict no no in the investment world. In addition there is sometimes outright theft of senior’s funds by someone they trust.

The Hoss encourages all of his readers to take action to prevent the financial abuse of elders by talking with your elders and teach them ways of protecting themselves from investment fraud. Make sure they understand to investigate not only the investment opportunity but also the person promoting the investment. Never hand over money without proper investigation and if necessary seek out independent advice from a third party.

The Canadian Securities Administrators offers fraud prevention resources for seniors which include:

• Protect Your Money: Avoiding frauds and scams
• Scam Artists Pursue Adults Over 50
• Sandwich Generation: Are you caught in the middle?
• Boiler Room Scams: Could you be vulnerable?

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Canadian Pension Reform

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Pension reform is the focus for Canada’s provincial and federal finance ministers this week in Charlottetown P.E.I. If Canadian seniors are to maintain a standard of living above the poverty level, pension reform is a must. The traditional benchmark (to maintain a respectable standard of living) of 60 to 70 per cent replacement of pre-retirement income is becoming increasingly difficult for Canadians to obtain.

Canadian Seniors have seen their personal debt levels rise, their savings reduced and a unstable stock market contribute to a reduction in their standard of living.

The Canadian Labour Congress has suggested that the average monthly pension benefit be doubled from its current $502.57. This has brought howls of protests from Canadian Federation of Independent Business. They claim that increasing the CPP premiums paid by employers will result in job losses and severely affect the economic recovery. In addition self-employed people would see a significant increase in their Canada Pension Plan premiums as they pay both employer and employee contributions.

Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty understands the need for pension reform but prefers modest increases in Canada Pension Plan payroll premiums that would be phased in over a number of years.

Whatever the finance ministers agree to they have a difficult threshold to meet. In order to make any changes, Parliament and two-thirds of the provinces with two-thirds of the population must agree.

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Mulroney Behaviour "Inappropriate" says Oliphant

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Hoss Cents Free Money Magazine is not surprised that Justice Jeffrey Oliphant found that former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney “failed to live up to the standard of conduct that he himself adopted in the 1985 ethics code.” and that he acted in an inappropriate way when he accepted a cash payment reported to be either $225,000 or $300,000 depending on whose version you choose to believe.

Oliphant made it very clear that Mulroney's conducted himself in a manner that was consistent with a person who was trying to hide the fact that an transaction occurred between him and lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber. There was no contract, or any documentation to confirm an agreement between the two parties. All evidence suggests Mr. Mulroney was trying to conceal that he received money from Mr. Schreiber.

On tree separate occasions Mr. Mulroney received envelopes stuffed with cash and he did not record these monies, deposit them or when given the opportunity disclose that these events took place. Oliphant specifically referred to the testimony Mulroney gave under oath in 1996 in connection with his lawsuit against the federal government as an example of Mulroney's failure to disclose these transactions.

It is estimated that the Canadian taxpayer is on the hook for $16 million, (the estimated cost of the inquiry). This figure includes $1.8 million for Mulroney’s lawyers.

Now that it has been shown Mr. Mulroney was less than honest, the question is, what happens to the $2.1 million Mulroney received as a settlement of his libel suit against the federal government? Opposition members of the Canadian Parliament have called for the Government to take steps to recover the $2.1 million.

The Hoss agrees with Mr. Oliphant conclusions that at the very least Mr. Mulroney acted in an inappropriate manner.

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