The financial news that actually matters
A Boca Raton man who kept directing a real-estate investment scheme from behind bars will spend the next two decades in federal prison after a judge handed down one of the longer fraud sentences of the year. The case matters beyond South Florida because it followed a pattern regulators say repeatedly targets retirement savings: a…
Owners who regret a timeshare are a ready-made target, because getting out of one is genuinely hard and the frustration is real. Into that gap steps an industry of so-called timeshare exit companies promising to make an unwanted contract disappear. Many charge thousands of dollars up front, do little or nothing to actually cancel the…
Most savers assume that money in a bank is simply safe, full stop. The reality carries a ceiling. Federal deposit insurance guarantees bank accounts only up to a set limit, and any balance parked above that line at a single institution is uninsured. If that bank fails, the protected portion is returned quickly, but the…
Somewhere in a state government account, tens of billions of dollars sit waiting for the rightful owners to ask for it back. Forgotten savings accounts, uncashed refund and paycheck checks, insurance payouts, utility deposits, and the contents of old safe-deposit boxes all pile up when a company loses track of a customer. State treasurers and…
A familiar name in mattress showrooms is now working its way through bankruptcy court, and the numbers attached to it are large. Sleep Number, known for its adjustable air beds sold through hundreds of stores, filed for Chapter 11 protection this summer with roughly 570 locations and about 3,000 employees. The company plans to keep…
The country’s largest boating-supply retailer is shrinking fast under bankruptcy protection, and the store count is the clearest measure of it. West Marine, a fixture for boaters buying everything from safety gear to engine parts, entered Chapter 11 earlier this year and has now marked 91 of its roughly 200 locations for closure. For customers…
Consumer data-breach settlements have become a quiet source of small, real cash payments, and several are open for claims at this moment. Two of them stand out because they ask for almost nothing from the person filing: a simple form, a name, and a submission before a deadline. Neither requires a receipt or proof of…
A data breach at a company most Americans have never dealt with directly has grown into one of the largest on record, and the final tally is far bigger than early estimates suggested. Conduent, a business-services contractor that handles payments, benefits administration and customer records for government agencies and large companies, has confirmed that the…
Roughly 5.8 million people whose personal information ran through a company most of them never heard of now have a short window to collect cash. The company, 700Credit, processes credit reports and identity checks for auto dealerships, and a data breach exposed the names, addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers of the consumers whose…
The fee that hits a checking account when a payment slips past the balance never really went away, and the number attached to it is once again bumping up against $27. A short-lived federal rule that would have slashed the charge at the biggest banks was wiped off the books before it started, leaving the…