You were impressed by the fact that they were gorgeous? That they were fully bilingual? Or that they were both? As someone who taught advanced English to many bankers and attorneys in Santo Domingo, I can tell you there's alot of these. Doesn't make them more competent, though, or the best advisors for first-timers to the DR.iluvdr said:
Actually, I am not sure I would have called that "sound" -- more like highly risky, like gambling. Back then there were many wondering if Hippo would default on the DR's debts, and whether the Central Bank would ever give investors back the money on those CD's once they came due....There was a reason all the rating agencies tanked their ratings for the DR in the waning months of the Hippo administration, you know.
Glad it worked out for you. But for someone not familiar with the DR and its risk environment, I'm not sure a prudent advisor should have suggested that investment for you. Could have sour just as easily.
Yeah, but as I recall from another thread, you have been impressed by bellhops and prostitutes, so your endorsement does not exactly inspire confidence.
1. I don't begrudge an investment advisor his fee if he does his job.
2. Some excellent advice is offered here on DR1 for free! Listen to people like Escott and Golo. They're trying to be helpful, insightful and don't have a commission riding on whether you believe them or not.
3. Never said he was a scam artist. What I said was that his sales pitch is misleading. He may be quite skilled & saavy. But what he pitches in his "interviews" (which always seem to be him interviewing himself), articles & website materials are misleading -- not always in what they say so much as the many things he implies and many, many things he conveniently omits. For example, a few years back he had many potential investors under the mistaken impression that the DR was a tax haven, that American citizens could park large sums of dollars in Dominican banks and the IRS would never find out about it...
You have to ask yourself, why is the outdated stuff still around? [Why, for example, does he show you a picture of a big nice house and ask where else can you buy something like this for only US$75,000???] If he makes so much money from savvy investing, and is so ethical, surely he can afford and would feel compelled to update his materials. Could it be because it would inconvenient to discuss current Dominican realities? Perhaps just like why his investment newsletter disappeared when the economy tanked in the DR?
I don't know the answer, but it sure makes one go "ummmmmm...."
As for this stuff "still making sense," this is coming from someone who decides the DR's education system is doing great because his bellhop has a law degree? Who has admitted that he is new to the DR's realities? Alot of this stuff didn't make sense to people living & working the DR realities when it was published 4 yrs ago! For example, in the article you quoted he talks about how tough it is to get & keep a banking license in the DR, as if this is a guarantee of bank safety. Can you say Baninter? Banco Mercantil?
BTW, what is with you and the word "meat"? Second time you've made that mistake. Meat, you eat. When you encounter someone, it's "meet."
This, plus your prior post, ought to come with the disclaimer, "The prior has been brought to you by the unbiased folks at Ascot Advisory Services, or The Guardian Group, or whatever other identity they care to adopt these days."
One final word of advice: there is not yet a consumer protection law in the DR, no entity charged with protecting consumers, no entity supervising advertising claims, and no true investor protections. Schroeder can dance around those issues all he wants, but those are the plain facts you'd do well to bear in mind in future investing in the DR.
