Hard to Stop

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Don and Tom examine the long disciplinary history of former broker James Tuberosa and his attempt to reinvent himself as a registered investment advisor through a newly formed firm, highlighting how fiduciary language can be used to mask conflicts driven by insurance commissions. They walk listeners through the importance of reading Form ADV disclosures and explain how regulatory gaps allow questionable practices to continue. The episode reinforces the principle of “buyer beware” before shifting to listener questions on saving for major expenses, evaluating high-fee annuities for elderly retirees, Roth IRA investing for young adults, and the advantages modern investors enjoy from lower costs and better diversification. The show closes with reflections on financial literacy, generational investing improvements, and a preview of RetireMeet 2026. 0:05 Opening and setup: broker misconduct story 0:10 James Tuberosa’s career and long record of complaints 1:14 FINRA expulsion and failed expungement lawsuit 2:42 How complaints get quietly “settled” 3:51 Shift from broker to RIA status 4:49 Skyview Pinnacle and the “clean” front 5:48 Using fiduciary language as marketing cover 7:17 Why insurance escapes SEC oversight 8:22 Conflicts disclosed in ADV 9:19 Why disclosures matter 10:47 Warning signs: promises and product pitching 12:01 Weakness of fiduciary protection 13:08 Ethical failures at large firms 14:38 Fiduciary vs. commission contradiction 15:36 Why reading ADVs protects investors 16:17 Transition to listener questions 17:16 Sinking funds: investing vs. saving 18:40 Planning for major home repairs 19:36 Elderly couple and complex annuity 21:01 Risks of high-fee variable annuities 22:36 Best Roth IRA investment for young adults 23:24 Advantages for today’s investors 24:58 Lower costs and better diversification today 26:38 Historical perspective on investing access 28:10 Listener engagement and contact info Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:26.4	Visit Slack.com forward slash meet Slackbot to learn more.
0:35.0	Reality Radio for a really great future.
0:38.2	We're talking real money.
0:40.9	Join me as I tell a little tale of a stockbroker turned insurance agent
0:48.1	and the little tricks that he played along the way to take advantage of you, his clients.
0:55.7	This all begins back in the mid-80s.
0:59.9	About the time yours truly, Don McDonald, became a stockbroker with the firm of Dean
1:05.4	Witter-Rennelts, part of the Sears Financial Network.
1:08.2	Well, around that same time, a gentleman by the name of James Richard
1:14.0	Tuberosa started working for a little slimy firm called First Investors Corporation. Then he went to
1:21.5	work for Raymond James and E.F. Hutton and Shearson Lehman and lots of other brokerage firms. And he started selling stuff to people.
1:30.1	And he was apparently very, very successful. He continued to work for major firms over the many years into the 2020s, a career that spanned about four decades.
1:48.3	However, during that time, Mr. Tuberosa racked up a total of 18 investor complaints filed with FINRA and the Securities and Exchange
1:56.0	Commission. Can I interrupt you there real quick? 18 that were documented. I mean,
2:00.6	there could have been a lot.
2:19.5	You know how this works. There's a lot of other ones that don't ever get to that point. They call in and say, he got to fix this. And the brokerage firm says, sure, we got this. And when you go through the list of the complaints, you find that most of them were settled. They gave the client's money, said, you're right. apparently, Mr. Tuberosa was still worth the trouble because he stayed with AmeriPrize, the firm that he started working for in, let's
2:29.1	see, when did he start working for them? Hold on. This little thing.
	...

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