If It Sounds Too Good to Be True

By Argus @ Adobe Stock

Now that the Fed has begun its crusade on cash returns, beware of the hucksters looking to separate you from your money. Jason Zweig offers a cautionary tale in The Wall Street Journal, writing:

Until you try to solve a financial puzzle, you never know how many levels it can have.

In a column published Aug. 30, I highlighted a peculiar investment called the Mega High-Yield Term Deposit, which claimed to offer up to a 15% guaranteed annual return for 10 years.

With the Federal Reserve’s rate cut on investors’ minds, high returns have become even more tempting than usual, so I dug in to see if the investment could possibly make sense. It didn’t—and what I’ve learned in the ensuing weeks is even crazier. It’s a tale of nonexistent companies, illusory returns and unlicensed salespeople making absurd claims.

The Mega, or Odyssey, “term deposits” were described on several websites whose logos and names invoked Yield Wealth and Yield BNK, startups launched by Kenneth Boyle of Duluth, Ga.

Boyle dissolved the Yield entities and took their websites offline at the beginning of this month, after my column was published. Nevertheless, these ultra-high-income investments are still being marketed widely—even though Yield no longer exists.

Searching for Yield
This week, YieldWealthManagement.com was still promoting “Colossal Yields – Without the risk,” with “fully insured guaranteed” returns of up to 17.1%. The site claims to be for Yield Wealth Management LLC, “an SEC-regulated wealth management firm.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s public database of registered investment-advisory firms has no listing for Yield Wealth Management LLC.

Boyle says he withdrew the SEC registration for his firm, whose full name was Yield Wealth Ltd., earlier this month; the regulator’s website for financial advisers confirms that the registration was terminated on Sept. 5.

Nevertheless, insurance agents are telling investors the Yield products are still available, trumpeting risk-free returns of 10.5% and up.

One seller shared with me screenshots of what he described as an online sales leaderboard for the products. The screenshots show that at least 49 salespeople have collectively sold no less than $59.1 million of the high-yield products in 2024.

One salesman, an insurance agent in Nebraska named Sean Privitera, emailed a Wall Street Journal reader about the “Yield Term Deposit” on Sept. 13, eight days after Yield Wealth Ltd. had ceased to exist.

It said in part: “Here’s the email that I usually send out it’s got all the Documents you would need below As well as the sign up form if you want to get rolling on your initial investment! ….10 Year 10.5% compounding interest for a total of 2.7x. if you leave the interest in for the full term….Fully insured for principal & interest up to $10MM per account….”

The Journal reader says Privitera told him over the phone that he’s sold $2 million worth of the investment.

Privitera didn’t respond to my requests for comment.

The email he sent the Journal reader, however, linked to a form that Yield’s term-deposit entity had filed months ago with the SEC, as well as to an old Yield private-placement memorandum, or offering document.

Such products generally can be marketed to the public only by people who are licensed to sell securities.

Most of the nearly two dozen people I’ve identified from the sales leaderboard don’t have securities licenses. Nor does Privitera.

Action Line: Remember, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Do your due diligence, and if you can’t, work with an advisor who is a fiduciary. When you want help, I’m here: ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com. In the meantime, click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

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