Seminar Scams; Jamie Mcintyre Scam or Not?

The 21st Century Wealth Academy and Jamie Mcintyre, Real Estate Investing / Trading, Wealth Creation, Share Trading and more, so how dose this guy do so much and is it a scam? Jamie Mcintyre runs seminars all over Australia and online he also offers free DVD’s on his seminar, on them he talks about Investment Strategies for Real Estate Investing / Trading and Share Trading general Wealth creation stuff and so on, you can find them almost everywhere online, Financially Free DVD.

So I went for a look around like I recommend on this blog to find the truth on this guy Jamie and I found some interesting articles on some of my recommended sites like http://www.fido.gov.au and got a great article titled Another wealth creation spruiker caught out and the another called Action stops further promotion of wealth creation seminars. Now these where posted back in 2005 and its now 2010 so what now?

His Background (as stated on the fido.gov.au website)
21st Century Academy promotes, advertises and conducts a business of holding wealth creation seminars. These seminars, and related materials, purport to teach people ‘how to excel in the 21st century and make money while you sleep’. Mr McIntyre is described as ‘the founder and head facilitator of the Academy, …a self-made millionaire and an inspiration to thousands’.

ASIC secured interlocutory undertakings from 21st Century Academy and Mr McIntyre on 5 April 2005 to restrain this conduct, pending the Court’s final decision.

Also you may notice that on this page as well http://www.fido.gov.au/fido/fido.nsf/byheadline/05-167+Another+wealth+creation+spruiker+caught+out you have the results of what has gone on, the results of Jamie Mcintyres companies like 21st century academy. You maybe surprised as I was when I had first come across all this negative information about Jamie, you’ll see that the decision was made and Jamie was to not give advice until or unless its given by a company or persons that held a AFSL, Australian Financial Services Licence. There is a little more and you should have a read though that is pretty much the idea.

Here is another interesting part if you go to http://www.21stcenturyacademy.com/jamie-mcintyre.php you’ll see a brief bio on Mr McIntyre and at the bottom it has what he requires to give advice,

Jamie McIntyre is an employee of 21st Century Investment Services Pty Ltd and an authorised representative of Romad Financial Services Pty Ltd (AFSL No 238 032). Jamie has been certified by Romad as being qualified in the areas of derivatives, securities and managed investment products. He is currently authorised to provide general advice and dealing services in Derivatives, Deposit Products, Managed Investments and Securities (ASIC No. 321 315).

Here is another quote from fido.gov.au;

The Executive Director of Enforcement at ASIC, Ms Jan Redfern said the Federal Court’s action should remind consumers that it is important to check the credentials of people providing financial advice.

That is the kind of advice we like to here on scams in any industry weather it is seminars, real estate, business or what ever you name it, the truth will be found on a proper website like the ASIC one or any of the government websites we recommend.

So to wrap this article up I want to let you know the process here: We did a google search and looked for government websites, they have .gov on the end of there URL then we did some reading and did so until we found a conclusion to the story on Jamie, he was a little easier then some less known people though that is a good start in spotting a scam in any case.

Spotting the difference: Financial Advice Seminar or Scam!

Is it Financial Advice or a scam? Roy McDonald has a great resource and a recommended site called;

http://www.understandingmoney.gov.au/

This site has great resources with financial advice the Do’s and Don’ts of financial advice or financial education.

Here are some of the things that can be included in seminars:

• How to manage your debt
• The option available in investing or savings
• Differences between investing areas like share trading VS real estate
• How to save money
• A product range the content and characteristics

Now Roy made this point very clear that if you don’t have a (AFS) Licence then you should not be giving the following advice at a seminar. (Australian Financial Services (AFS) Licence)

• Giving advice that this product is the one to use
• Giving advice of which option is best
• Or advice on which product is best
• Advising where to put their money

When people are giving this advice it is to particular and narrow in a seminar environment Roy McDonald said it is general advice because everyone is different and that kind of very narrow, this product or that is best, will not suit everyone. We all have different commitments with bills; real estate, personal homes, cars, small loans, phones. What you will really need to know to stop being scammed is your position in detail, have an important documents file with all your details up to date so you can see in an instant and even know to a degree if you are ask how much and where your money is coming from and going too.

The important note here is; if you are at a seminar and worried that an investment in a product from them will be a scam then check in with yourself and your financial position. Am I a person that suits share trading and also will it work with my portfolio? How high is my financial education in this arena, out of 10? Can I afford for everything to go bad if in the worst case it dose.

Stick to your goals as Roy has said before and start simple, here is an example of starting small with a bank account. Roy calls it the Wealth Account, you can find the e-book here;

http://www.slideshare.net/RoyMcDonald/wealth-account-by-roy-mc-donald