Debbie Jorgensen Merrill Lynch – The Latest review

When you look up financial advisors in the highly competitive market of San Francisco, you come across many financial advisors. Debbie Jorgensen Merrill Lynch is one of them. 

She has been in the industry for several decades but it seems she is using her experience and knowledge in the wrong direction. The advisor who appears to be a normal and skilled professional at a glance is nothing like it according to her disclosures. 

Her disclosures reveal that she uses greedy and unethical tactics to siphon money off of her clients. In the following review I have highlighted the primary issues present in her disclosures: 

Who is Debbie Jorgensen Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Advisor? 

Debbie Jorgensen Merrill Lynch is a wealth management advisor and her office is situated in San Francisco, California. The address of her office is 555 California St 9th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104, US, and her contact number is 415-676-2570. 

Her firm caters to entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and multi-generational families. They also claim to develop a deep understanding of their client’s financial requirements to serve as their primary advisor. 

Some of the services Debbie Jorgensen Merrill Lynch offers to her clients include: 

  • Concentrated stock holdings
  • Banking and cash management
  • Reporting and tracking
  • Education planning
  • Financial Strategies and wealth projections
  • Investment management
  • Estate and wealth transfer services

However, the disclosures of Debbie Jorgensen and her firm expose the truth of her false claims. According to her disclosures, Debbie Jorgensen and her team have financial incentives for ignoring your requirements and goals. They grow at your expense. 

In the next section of my review, I have highlighted the shady provisions present in Debbie’s disclosures: 

Why You Shouldn’t Trust Debbie Jorgensen Merrill Lynch:

Before you start working with any financial advisor, you should look them up on FINRA BrokerCheck. It’s a database that tells you all the crucial information about an investment advisor such as their professional experience, the exams they have passed, their state licenses, and the legal disputes they’ve had.

Debbie Jorgensen

Debbeie’s profile on FINRA BrokerCheck shows one legal dispute. The date of this dispute is 5-22-2015. Here, the client alleged unauthorized trading from January 2015 to February 2015. 

However, Debbie’s Jorgensen firm denied these claims by saying that there was no merit to them. 

There’s no information available on the requested amount of damages. Still, facing a legal dispute just a few years ago doesn’t look good. It shows a lack of professionalism and ethics in Debbie Jorgensen Merrill Lynch and her firm. 

Charging 12b-1 Fees

A huge red flag in Debbie Jorgensen’s disclosures is that she charges 12b-1 fees. The 12b-1 fee goes in the pocket of the advisor and adds no value to the investment. It has no impact on the performance of the investment either, so you end up paying more for no reason. 

Moreover, it’s charged as a percentage and added to a fund’s total expense ratio. So, it’s costlier for clients with large portfolios (those with more assets). The bigger your portfolio, the more you’ll have to pay. 

Even though there are cheaper and more reasonable alternatives available, Debbie Jorgensen and her team have a monetary incentive for ignoring them. Investments that charge a 12b-1 fee don’t perform any better than those that don’t charge this fee. 

In other words, the 12b-1 fee is an unethical way for financial advisors to steal funds from their clients. You should be wary of financial advisors who charge this fee as it’s particularly detrimental to your financial well-being in the long run. 

Earning Commissions from Companies

When you work with a boutique financial advisor, you hope to get high-quality recommendations that align with your financial goals and requirements. However, when your advisor earns commissions from the sale of certain investments, you can’t trust their recommendations. 

That’s because your advisor has an incentive for ignoring your interests when they suggest certain investments.

Furthermore, Debbie Jorgensen is a part of Merrill Lynch, a company with multiple proprietary investment products. Recommending these proprietary products would offer her hefty commissions which would be too good to ignore. 

These proprietary products might not match your financial requirements but she and her team would recommend them regardless. Earning from commissions is a big reason why financial advisors give unsuitable advice and misrepresent their clients. 

Before you trust such an advisor, you should ask yourself this simple question, “Would they prioritize my financial well-being over their own?”

The Broker-Dealer Conflict

Debbie Jorgensen is not just a financial advisor but also a broker-dealer. As a broker-dealer, she can earn compensation from different companies for selling their investment products to others. 

Research shows that being a broker-dealer has a negative impact on the quality of service a financial advisor provides. This means financial advisors who are broker-dealers don’t provide high-quality service to their clients. 

Being a broker-dealer leads to various conflicts of interest such as cross-selling of commission-generating products. Similar to earning from commissions, being a broker-dealer is also a big reason behind most cases of unsuitable advice and misrepresentation. 

Verdict

After going through some of the shady provisions present in Debbie’s terms and conditions, it’s clear that she doesn’t care about the financial well-being of her clients. From charging a redundant fee to recommending unsuitable products to her clients, her firm is doing everything wrong. 

Many investors don’t even find out about these issues until it’s too late. In many cases, the advisor offers subpar advice to her clients so they don’t get the best returns. 

That’s why you should be particularly cautious of the fine print and find someone who truly cares about his or her clients. If you care about your financial security, you should avoid Debbie Jorgensen, Merrill Lynch. 

2.6Expert Score
Avoid!

Debbie Jorgensen Merrill Lynch is a shady financial advisor who traps investors into unfavorable agreements by hiding the dirty provisions in the fine print. You should be very cautious while dealing with such advisors and it would be best to avoid her altogether.

Trust
3
Service
2.5
Experience
3
Concern for Clients
2
Pros
  • None
Cons
  • Broker-dealer conflict
  • Charging 12b-1 fees
  • Earning commissions from firms

1 Comment
  1. This guys know what happens to scammers. that is the most worse criminal act. they can’t run away.

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