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What basis do you have for believing TrustEgg will do any of the unethical things you list? Your logic seems to be "there are unscrupulous financial service pro

by mustpax 14y ago

What basis do you have for believing TrustEgg will do any of the unethical things you list? Your logic seems to be "there are unscrupulous financial service providers in the trust fund business, therefore TrustEgg is unscrupulous." Which deserves an F for logic and a second F for constructive feedback.

jellicle 14y ago
My assumption is that there a few ways a company can grow and be successful. One is by providing something of value, and charging people for it. However, the service in this case is of negative value. There are ZERO trust fund benefits for most people, and if your kid goes to college, the trust fund will be a substantial negative - your parents should have kept the money in their bank account. So that can't be the way forward for this company. The second way is by exploiting something. Exploiting people's desires to provide for their children. Exploiting their financial illiteracy. Scamming people, in other words. This is also a successful business model, in that it works for the business (bad for society, of course). We have something that looks like a duck and walks like a duck. We have not actually heard it quack like a duck, not yet. But the question in my mind is, how COULD this be a successful business? The product being offered has zero or negative value to almost everyone[1], and this is an age of financial scams of various sorts, the "grifter economy" as it has been dubbed. Am I so off-base in suggesting that this might be one of them? Am I crazy? [1] Just a caveat: trust funds can be useful in a few cases, but you aren't rich enough to benefit.
- Daniel_Newby 14y ago
  > There are ZERO trust fund benefits for most people, ... Trust funds are a liability shield. > ... your parents should have kept the money in their bank account. Where it can be taken in a personal injury claim, or seized as alimony by a vindictive ex wife, or spent down by a the parent's medical trustee, or hundreds of other financial disasters. The point of establishing a trust fund is to give a young person money that cannot easily be diverted or frittered away. Strings can be attached so that a teenager does not destroy themselves with money. P.S. Companies like this make money by keeping overhead low and scaling up to bazillions of customers. You don't have to be a cheat or even expensive if you can get 10,000,000 customers.

by mustpax 14y ago

jellicle 14y ago

My assumption is that there a few ways a company can grow and be successful. One is by providing something of value, and charging people for it. However, the service in this case is of negative value. There are ZERO trust fund benefits for most people, and if your kid goes to college, the trust fund will be a substantial negative - your parents should have kept the money in their bank account. So that can't be the way forward for this company. The second way is by exploiting something. Exploiting people's desires to provide for their children. Exploiting their financial illiteracy. Scamming people, in other words. This is also a successful business model, in that it works for the business (bad for society, of course). We have something that looks like a duck and walks like a duck. We have not actually heard it quack like a duck, not yet. But the question in my mind is, how COULD this be a successful business? The product being offered has zero or negative value to almost everyone[1], and this is an age of financial scams of various sorts, the "grifter economy" as it has been dubbed. Am I so off-base in suggesting that this might be one of them? Am I crazy? [1] Just a caveat: trust funds can be useful in a few cases, but you aren't rich enough to benefit.

Daniel_Newby 14y ago
> There are ZERO trust fund benefits for most people, ... Trust funds are a liability shield. > ... your parents should have kept the money in their bank account. Where it can be taken in a personal injury claim, or seized as alimony by a vindictive ex wife, or spent down by a the parent's medical trustee, or hundreds of other financial disasters. The point of establishing a trust fund is to give a young person money that cannot easily be diverted or frittered away. Strings can be attached so that a teenager does not destroy themselves with money. P.S. Companies like this make money by keeping overhead low and scaling up to bazillions of customers. You don't have to be a cheat or even expensive if you can get 10,000,000 customers.