Leading U.S. Financial Regulators, Trade Associations Launch www.HelpForInvestors.org as ’One-Stop’ Resource; New Alliance for Investor Education Tool Highlights Key Online Aid for Investors

WASHINGTON, June 15 -- In order to make it as easy as possible for investors in trouble to find the help they need quickly, the 18-member Alliance For Investor Education (AIE) today launched a new “one-stop information shopping” at http://www.HelpForInvestors.org to pull together 14 key links into a single Web page. The easy-to-use list shows investors where to check out financial professionals, how to report investment fraud, the best help for dealing with other major problems -- including broker bankruptcies, identity theft and 401(k) claims -- and filing arbitration and mediation claims.

The content featured in the new http://www.HelpForInvestors.org cuts across the entire investment community represented in AIE’s membership ranks. Full members of the Alliance are: the American Association of Individual Investors, Bond Market Association, Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, CFA Institute, Investment Company Institute Foundation, Investor Protection Trust, National Association of Investors Corporation, National Association of Securities Dealers, National Futures Association, National Investor Relations Institute, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, New York Stock Exchange, Foundation for Investor Education, and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Advisors to AIE include: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the North American Securities Administrators Association, which includes the 50 state securities agencies in the United States.

“People have many thousands of pages of excellent information available to them on the Web and our goal is to make sure that investors -- in their hour of greatest need -- can go directly to what they need in order to get help,” said Alliance for Investor Education President Michael D. Jones, who also serves as senior executive vice president and chief administrative officer for the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). “As a coalition of government agencies, regulators and trade groups, the Alliance for Investor Education is striving to make the power of the Web work for investors, rather than allowing information that is scattered across a dozen Web sites to escape the attention of those who need it the most. We hope that every investor in America who finds out about this important new tool will bookmark the Web page in case they need it in the future.”

The key resources pulled together on one Web page for investors at http://www.HelpForInvestors.org are as follows:

CHECK OUT YOUR BROKER/INVESTMENT ADVISOR:

-- National Association of Securities Dealers BrokerCheck.

-- Securities and Exchange Commission -- Check Out Brokers and Advisors.

-- National Futures Association BASIC.

REPORT INVESTMENT FRAUD/ABUSE:

-- Securities Exchange Commission.

-- Your state securities regulator.

-- Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

GET OTHER HELP:

-- Brokerage firm bankruptcy -- Securities Investor Protection Corporation.

-- Identity theft -- Federal Trade Commission.

-- 401(k) claims -- U.S. Department of Labor.

-- Find a CFP -- Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.

FILE ARBITRATION/MEDIATION CLAIMS:

-- National Association of Securities Dealers.

-- New York Stock Exchange.

-- National Futures Association.

-- Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Reparations.

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ABOUT AIE:

Founded in 1996, the 18-member Alliance for Investor Education Web site at http://www.InvestorEducation.org provides investors with access to a full range of information they need to make wise investment decisions. The Alliance is dedicated to facilitating a greater understanding of investment basics.

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Alliance for Investor Education

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