Disclaimer: I’m not an Economics or Finance major, and I haven’t taken a Business-oriented class since sophomore year of high school. So I’m no expert. But as I’m baby-stepping my way into adulthood, I figured this is something that is important to know.
Whenever you get a contract, or a mortgage, or a loan, or anything that requires you to sign anything, it’s always important to read the fine print.
There are people out there who like to take advantage of others, and when you’re staring down a 50 to 100-page document that requires your signature once, it can be very easy to just sign.
This week on “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” his main segment was about Retirement Plans and how easy it is to be swindled into a plan that may not be beneficial to you, or may be more beneficial for the ‘financial advisor’ than for you.
Here’s the full video (it’s 20 minutes long, but it’s pretty important and Billy Eichner is at the end, so you have that to look forward to).
There’s a lot of information in that video, and it can seem formidable to try to tackle some of this if you don’t have the know-how, but it is incredibly important as well. Managing finances is easily one of the most important things you will ever do. Unless you’re one of those people expecting the zombie apocalypse to happen, thus making all currency useless outside of the small fractures of civilization still persisting in small, localized areas scattered across the great American landscape. (You should still manage and monitor your finances, though.)
A high profile example of this recently is the Foo Fighters, who are currently suing their concert insurers, Lloyd’s of London, and the insurance broker who secured those policies, Robertson Taylor.
They’re suing over several cancelled tour stops in 2015 due to front man Dave Grohl’s broken leg injury and later due to the Paris terrorist attacks.
I am not an expert, but from what I can gather about the case from the language used in the articles written about it, there are policies built into the tour which account for cancellation due to injury (kind of like workman’s comp, if you get hurt ‘on the job’) and a terrorism policy, which covers for international incidents (which, if that’s true, what a weird and awful world we live in).
The Foo Fighters (or their representatives) are claiming that Robertson Taylor was dishonest and “failed to warn them that rescheduling their UK shows would affect any insurance claim” and that the insurers “'recharacterized’ the cancelled … performances as being ‘rescheduled’ which would dramatically reduce the amount those insurers would owe in a claim.” The complaint also “charges Robertson Taylor acted on the insurers’ behalf,” which, as a fiduciary, is the complete opposite of what you’re supposed to do, and I'm pretty sure is illegal.
Now, why the Foo Fighters need to sue for compensation, I don’t know. The language of a lot of these articles is very muddy and jargon-heavy, and as I’ve said before, I’m no expert. Maybe as this case proceeds, more details behind what and why this is happening will come forward. I’d like to think my favorite band isn’t some mean money-grabbing group, especially with their continued relevancy in a vastly and rapidly changing rock music landscape.
But this article isn’t about the Foo Fighters totally: they’re the lesson. If it can happen to big shots like them, it can definitely happen to you. So always look over contracts and manage your policies and claims. Prepare for the future. Live long and prosper.
“Das Jus Me Doe” – the1janitor
What do you think about this?
If I got any of this information wrong, which is a distinct possibility, please give me your scathing response (that will definitely not attack my youth and inexperience) in the comments below!
Thank you for reading!
