Market gyrations may seem wild, but the general stock market has solid fundamentals. These seven stocks will keep an even keel as the market gyrates.
7 low-volatility stocks
for jittery times
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Instead of slashing holdings, experts advise more surgical moves, including checking P/Es and tilting toward dividends.
Five ways to safeguard a portfolio during a downturn
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The Federal Reserve doesn't need to lower interest rates, but it probably will anyway. Coronavirus has introduced a new risk into a global economy.
A Fed rate cut right now is the wrong medicine
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9 of the best gold ETFs to hedge volatility
The precious metal is attractive when uncertainty abounds in the market.
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A rally for alternative energy stocks
Alternative-energy stocks skyrocket amid renewed optimism about the industry. Analysts point to backlashes against power outages and climate-change as some of the reasons behind their newfound popularity.
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16 stocks Warren Buffett is buying and selling
Berkshire Hathaway's latest scorecard is out. Here are all the stakes that Warren Buffett's investment vehicle added to, or trimmed, during the final quarter of 2019.
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Yield and stability are key for older investors to consider when managing their portfolios.
8 stocks to buy if you're over 50
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7 dividend stocks for a bear market
One way to deal with stock market uncertainty is to move into safer dividend stocks. Prepare for the next bear market with these super safe dividend stocks.
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12 stocks for a market
in turmoil
If you're searching for havens when Wall Street tumbles, stronger companies can help you play better defense. These dozen names may be what you're looking for.
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Hackers are ramping up attacks on retirement accounts
The financial services industry is a top target for scammers. Here's how to keep yourself safe.
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10 best retirement plans
in 2020
Use this interactive guide to help you find the best plan for achieving financial security in your golden years.
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How to decide where
to retire
Consider costs, lifestyle preferences and the quality of life when selecting a place to retire.
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The co-managers of Tocqueville Asset Management's Enhanced Income Strategy offering count JPMorgan preferred stock among their holdings.
Cautious buying in
today's market
Deep interest rate cuts could help many companies, but some more than others. These seven names could benefit now that the Fed has sent borrowing costs to a low.
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10 stocks you may want to hold onto
In a market environment that overwhelmingly encourages constant activity by investors who seemingly want to double their money every week, a discussion of stocks to buy and hold forever seems comically out of place.
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7 stocks to get you thinking like Buffett
Warren Buffett's long-term value strategy has gotten him through many a bear market. If you want to invest like him, these seven names may be worth a look.
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The current downturn has dividends getting cut, making quality companies more important to investors. These 15 names have raised their payouts for at least 50 years.
15 ‘dividend kings’ for today’s market
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Dividend Stocks
Oracle of Omaha
Investing Strategies
Interest Rates
INVESTING IDEAS
Tip: How to save time when creating a tab module from scratch.
Create one tab that has the images, text format, animations, and interactions you want the other tabs in the module to have. Copy and paste the tab and change the names of the pasted tab folders in the layers panel. You can then change the text and images in each tab. This is more efficient than making each tab from scratch.
Turn flat objects into multidimensional, dynamic content by adding a drop shadow.
To apply a drop shadow, select the shape or image and add a shadow in the design panel. Experiment with the shadow color, blurriness, and position in relation to the asset.
Round the corners on images and rectangles.
To do this, select an image or rectangle and change the value under "Corner Radius" in the Design tab in the Inspector Panel.
To replace an image, select the png or jpeg on the canvas or in the layers panel and click the "Replace image" button, which is next to the image thumbnail in the design panel. Any applied animation to the original image will carry over to the new one.
Tip: Try to make the new image a similar size and dimension to the image being replaced.
Create digestible content and save screen real-estate by condensing lengthy content into categories that can be viewed on separate tabs.
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The Social Security Administration recently warned about fraudulent letters threatening beneficiaries that their payments would be suspended or discontinued due to coronavirus-related office closures unless they called a phone number referenced in the letter. Scammers could then encourage those who called in to provide personal information or payment via retail gift cards, wire transfers, internet currency, or cash to maintain their benefits, the administration warned.
The agency said it won’t suspend or discontinue benefits due to the pandemic. Anyone who receives any communication about an alleged problem with their Social Security number, account, or payments that they believe to be suspicious should hang up or not respond, it advises.
Beneficiaries shouldn’t trust their caller ID as scam calls may show up on caller ID as the Social Security Administration, the FTC warns.
The agency says to report Social Security scams online.
Once the current crisis subsides, workers will need to focus on rebuilding their savings, including those who reduced their savings rate to preserve cash. That means re-enrolling in a retirement plan and committing to gradual but steady increases in contributions at some point in the future.
For those wondering how best to play catch-up, I suggest you default to the following: Go back to your precrisis saving rate next year, then increase that rate 2 percentage points annually until you reach 15%, the new cap under a new law known as the Secure Act.
You can set up a basic version of this nudge on your own, putting a reminder in your calendar to increase your savings rate next year, or on your next birthday. Research shows that people are particularly likely to take steps to achieve a goal during certain temporal landmarks that represent new beginnings, whether it’s a birthday or new year. This is known as the fresh start effect.
Of course, it’s a lot better if employers and plan providers create autopilots for these interventions, making it easy for people to commit to save more with a single click. Most already offer a version of the “savings escalator,” but every employer should.
Companies also could encourage employees to save at a higher rate in the future by implementing a “stretched match.” For example, instead of offering 50 cents on the dollar up to 6%, they could offer 25 cents up to 15%. In the short-term, this will save companies money. In the long run, it will encourage workers to save more and demonstrate a commitment of the company to their retirement success.
Unfortunately, millions of workers won’t be able to keep saving with their current employer because they have lost jobs due to Covid-19. These Americans are facing perhaps the hardest decision of all: What should they do with their old retirement accounts?
Generally speaking, when people change jobs, about a third of workers keep the account with their old employer, a third roll it over to an IRA, and a third cash it out.
My rule of thumb for the newly unemployed is to keep your retirement account where it is. You often benefit from lower investment-management fees and it is the path of least resistance. However, if you want to mentally “close the chapter” with your old employer, and you don’t need the funds right away, it’s definitely better to roll it over than cash out.
Be aware, however, that our current system almost always makes it easier to cash out than roll it over. This is backward. Given the need for savings, companies and plan providers need to make rolling over a retirement account as easy as cashing out.
Once the current crisis subsides, workers will need to focus on rebuilding their savings, including those who reduced their savings rate to preserve cash. That means re-enrolling in a retirement plan and committing to gradual but steady increases in contributions at some point in the future.
For those wondering how best to play catch-up, I suggest you default to the following: Go back to your precrisis saving rate next year, then increase that rate 2 percentage points annually until you reach 15%, the new cap under a new law known as the Secure Act.
You can set up a basic version of this nudge on your own, putting a reminder in your calendar to increase your savings rate next year, or on your next birthday. Research shows that people are particularly likely to take steps to achieve a goal during certain temporal landmarks that represent new beginnings, whether it’s a birthday or new year. This is known as the fresh start effect.
Of course, it’s a lot better if employers and plan providers create autopilots for these interventions, making it easy for people to commit to save more with a single click. Most already offer a version of the “savings escalator,” but every employer should.
Companies also could encourage employees to save at a higher rate in the future by implementing a “stretched match.” For example, instead of offering 50 cents on the dollar up to 6%, they could offer 25 cents up to 15%. In the short-term, this will save companies money. In the long run, it will encourage workers to save more and demonstrate a commitment of the company to their retirement success.
Unfortunately, millions of workers won’t be able to keep saving with their current employer because they have lost jobs due to Covid-19. These Americans are facing perhaps the hardest decision of all: What should they do with their old retirement accounts?
Generally speaking, when people change jobs, about a third of workers keep the account with their old employer, a third roll it over to an IRA, and a third cash it out.
My rule of thumb for the newly unemployed is to keep your retirement account where it is. You often benefit from lower investment-management fees and it is the path of least resistance. However, if you want to mentally “close the chapter” with your old employer, and you don’t need the funds right away, it’s definitely better to roll it over than cash out.
Be aware, however, that our current system almost always makes it easier to cash out than roll it over. This is backward. Given the need for savings, companies and plan providers need to make rolling over a retirement account as easy as cashing out.
Social security scams
Rebuilding your savings
My last rule of thumb is aimed at retirees who are debating whether to skip their required minimum distribution, or RMD, for 2020.
If you don’t need the money—and you may not, since many Americans have cut back on spending amid the current crisis—don’t take it out this year. I’m not recommending this because of recent market performance or trying to time the market. Rather, it’s because skipping your RMD this year means you will have more later, and thus reduce the very real risk of outliving your assets.
If you need the money, I recommend taking it out little by little, perhaps every month or quarter, to avoid the potential regret of selling assets near the bottom of a correction.
One day, the Covid-19 pandemic will be a distant memory. However, the financial decisions we make during this crisis will have long-term consequences, potentially reducing our financial security well into the future. Unless we give people clear and simple recommendations, and make it easy for them to follow, our well-intentioned reforms might backfire.
Take or skip?
Rebuilding your savings
My last rule of thumb is aimed at retirees who are debating whether to skip their required minimum distribution, or RMD, for 2020.
If you don’t need the money—and you may not, since many Americans have cut back on spending amid the current crisis—don’t take it out this year. I’m not recommending this because of recent market performance or trying to time the market. Rather, it’s because skipping your RMD this year means you will have more later, and thus reduce the very real risk of outliving your assets.
If you need the money, I recommend taking it out little by little, perhaps every month or quarter, to avoid the potential regret of selling assets near the bottom of a correction.
One day, the Covid-19 pandemic will be a distant memory. However, the financial decisions we make during this crisis will have long-term consequences, potentially reducing our financial security well into the future. Unless we give people clear and simple recommendations, and make it easy for them to follow, our well-intentioned reforms might backfire.
Take or skip?
The first difficult decision faced by workers who are forced to pull money from retirement savings is whether to take a hardship withdrawal or loan. The withdrawal might seem to offer the best of both worlds under the new law. It doesn’t have to be repaid—but if the worker can repay it within three years, he or she will get a refund on taxes paid. A loan, on the other hand, must be repaid on a fixed schedule.
The flexibility associated with the withdrawal, however, is likely an illusion. That’s because retirement plans don’t have automated repayment systems for withdrawals like they do for loans. Instead, workers will have to remember to send checks or payments on their own, and behavioral research tells us most are unlikely to do so.
What’s more, claiming the tax benefit for repaying Covid-19 withdrawals is likely to require a professional accountant, as workers will be seeking a credit for taxes they’ve already paid.
Therefore, if you are serious about putting back whatever amount you pull out, go with a loan because it makes repayment easy. (You also have more years to pay it back.) If you don’t think you’ll repay, or if you are likely to lose your job, use the Covid-19 withdrawal.
That said, employers should still set up auto-payment systems to help people pay back their withdrawals.
After deciding between a loan or a withdrawal, the next question is how much to pull out. To make it easy, I propose this general guideline: Take half of what you think you might need.
To understand why “take half” is a valuable nudge, it’s important to understand how most people settle on financial numbers, whether it’s an initial savings rate or a loan amount. Research that I conducted with Nobel laureate Richard Thaler suggests that many people rely on mental shortcuts when making difficult financial decisions instead of considering their actual needs. For instance, we found that people were nearly 20 times as likely to select 10% as a savings rate rather than 9% or 11%. Why is that? Because 10% is an easy round number to consider. This tendency could lead some workers to take out the maximum permitted under the Cares Act simply because it is easy.
By following my “take half” rule, you will preserve more of your nest egg and maintain the option of taking out the second half at a later date. And considering that most Americans have significantly cut back their spending during the shutdown, you might not need the money.
The only potential problem with this approach is that some employers don’t let plan participants take out multiple loans. Companies should consider lifting this restriction to discourage workers from taking out larger loans, just in case they need the money.
What about those who decide against a loan or withdrawal but want to cut back on their savings rate to preserve cash? Try to save at least save the minimum needed to get the maximum employer match. In other words, don’t leave money on the table.
Dipping in
The first difficult decision faced by workers who are forced to pull money from retirement savings is whether to take a hardship withdrawal or loan. The withdrawal might seem to offer the best of both worlds under the new law. It doesn’t have to be repaid—but if the worker can repay it within three years, he or she will get a refund on taxes paid. A loan, on the other hand, must be repaid on a fixed schedule.
The flexibility associated with the withdrawal, however, is likely an illusion. That’s because retirement plans don’t have automated repayment systems for withdrawals like they do for loans. Instead, workers will have to remember to send checks or payments on their own, and behavioral research tells us most are unlikely to do so.
What’s more, claiming the tax benefit for repaying Covid-19 withdrawals is likely to require a professional accountant, as workers will be seeking a credit for taxes they’ve already paid.
Therefore, if you are serious about putting back whatever amount you pull out, go with a loan because it makes repayment easy. (You also have more years to pay it back.) If you don’t think you’ll repay, or if you are likely to lose your job, use the Covid-19 withdrawal.
That said, employers should still set up auto-payment systems to help people pay back their withdrawals.
After deciding between a loan or a withdrawal, the next question is how much to pull out. To make it easy, I propose this general guideline: Take half of what you think you might need.
To understand why “take half” is a valuable nudge, it’s important to understand how most people settle on financial numbers, whether it’s an initial savings rate or a loan amount. Research that I conducted with Nobel laureate Richard Thaler suggests that many people rely on mental shortcuts when making difficult financial decisions instead of considering their actual needs. For instance, we found that people were nearly 20 times as likely to select 10% as a savings rate rather than 9% or 11%. Why is that? Because 10% is an easy round number to consider. This tendency could lead some workers to take out the maximum permitted under the Cares Act simply because it is easy.
By following my “take half” rule, you will preserve more of your nest egg and maintain the option of taking out the second half at a later date. And considering that most Americans have significantly cut back their spending during the shutdown, you might not need the money.
The only potential problem with this approach is that some employers don’t let plan participants take out multiple loans. Companies should consider lifting this restriction to discourage workers from taking out larger loans, just in case they need the money.
What about those who decide against a loan or withdrawal but want to cut back on their savings rate to preserve cash? Try to save at least save the minimum needed to get the maximum employer match. In other words, don’t leave money on the table.
Dipping in
Do you have to pay more for a policy that doesn't require a medical exam?
Some insurers require people to wait for at least 30 or 90 days before applying for coverage if they've been exposed to anyone with COVID-19. (GETTY IMAGES)
Not if they can avoid it. In normal times, most life insurance companies require a paramedical exam, where someone comes to the applicant's home to take blood and other tests and ask about their medical history. It's difficult to have in-person visits during the coronavirus pandemic, so more insurers are starting to offer policies without a medical exam. You'll usually need to answer extra questions about your health history on the application, and the insurers also use other methods to assess your risk – such as records of your prescription medications, information from previous life insurance applications from the Medical Information Bureau, records from recent doctors' visits (electronic medical records, when possible) and your driving records. Some companies use credit scores, and others use black box-type "risk scores" that are put together by the big data companies like TransUnion or LexisNexis, says Udell.
Some companies aren't eliminating paramedical exams entirely, but are bypassing them whenever possible. "Under certain circumstances, depending on their age and how much insurance they want, we'll run clients through a predictive model, and they may not need a paramedic exam or fluids tested to be issued a policy," says Quentin Doll, vice president of life insurance products for Northwestern Mutual. "If you can go through the accelerated process, we can issue a policy within a day or two. That's our goal."
Are insurers still requiring a paramedical examiner to come to your home when you apply for coverage?
Not necessarily. In the past, the premiums were much higher for policies that didn't require a medical exam. But as insurers use other resources to assess risk, the prices have become much more competitive. In fact, the companies that don't require medical exams currently have the lowest rates for some ages and policy amounts, says Udell. The no-exam companies generally have coverage limits ranging from $100,000 to $1 million, with the lower limits for older applicants. Udell works with about six companies that aren't requiring an exam now, and about 10 more don't require an exam if you meet certain medical requirements on your application. The no-exam policies can be issued within a few days.
For example, a 40-year-old man who is in excellent health can get a $500,000, 20-year term insurance policy for $309 per year from a company that doesn't do exams, which is better than the rate for the companies Udell works with that do require medical exams. For a 50-year-old man, the least expensive company Udell works with is charging $858 per year for a 20-year $500,000 policy, but it requires a medical exam. The lowest-cost company that doesn't require a medical exam is charging $940 per year. (Premiums are lower for women.)
Not right away, but the rules vary a lot by company and are constantly evolving.
People who have had symptoms or tested positive for COVID-19 have to be symptom-free for a month before Northwestern Mutual will start underwriting their policy, says Doll. "Once they've fully recovered, and as long as there are no continuing underlying conditions, there's nothing that would prevent them from getting coverage."
Some insurers require people to wait for at least 30 or 90 days before applying for coverage if they've been exposed to anyone with COVID-19, says Udell. Exposure can be difficult to prove, but that would make it hard to get coverage if anyone who lives with you has had a positive COVID-19 test.
Can someone with coronavirus symptoms or who has tested positive for COVID-19 get life insurance?
Probably, but you may have a few options. If you're just furloughed, your employer may keep your coverage for a while. "It's all over the board," says Robert McGee, senior director of absence, disability management and life insurance for Willis Towers Watson. "Some carriers say they'll allow an employer to continue coverage for employees on furlough or temporary layoff for two to 12 months."
If your employer's coverage ends after you are laid off, you may be able to convert the term policy into a whole life policy that you can keep after you leave your job. "But the increase in premium can be astronomical," says McGee. "That conversion option usually is not the best option for someone who is laid off." Some policies offer a "portability" option that lets you switch to your own term insurance policy, which costs less than the conversion policy but may still be more expensive than buying your own coverage if you're healthy, he says.
If I have life insurance through my employer and lose my job, will I lose my life insurance coverage too?
Contact your agent and insurer and find out about your options. Many insurers are offering more payment flexibility over the next few months. New York Life, for example, is temporarily pausing cancellations for non-payment of premiums through June 23, 2020 (only for policies that were issued before March 24, 2020 and the first premium has been paid). All missed payments will be due once that period ends.
"Life insurance is one of the most important ways people protect their families, and we have seen a significant increase in interest since this situation emerged," says Aaron Ball, senior vice president and head of insurance solutions at New York Life. "We have been working to ensure that people who want protection for their families can get it, and no existing policyowner loses their life or long-term care insurance coverage during the next several months because of a financial hardship caused by COVID-19."
What happens if I have trouble paying my premiums because of the economic downturn?
Yes. If you already have a permanent life insurance policy, then you can borrow most of the cash value at any time without having to submit a loan application. The loan doesn't affect your credit rating, and you can usually get the money within 48 hours. "Permanent insurance provides a lot of flexibility," says Doll. "It builds accumulated cash value that can be accessed at any time and for any reason very quickly." He says that policy loans have been especially helpful for small business owners who need the extra cash to help keep their businesses running over the next few months.
You pay interest on the loan, but there's no repayment schedule. If you die before repaying the loan, the balance is subtracted from the death benefit.
If I have a permanent life insurance policy, can I use the cash value as an emergency fund?
Not surprisingly, given the indefinitely large sums that BP would potentially have to pay to compensate victims of the spill, the company’s stock plunged . From its close on the day of the Deepwater explosion to its low on June 25 of that year, its stock fell by more than 55%.
It’s what happened in the weeks after that low that is relevant to today’s situation. BP stock’s low point came nearly three months before the oil leak was finally plugged. When it was finally stopped in September, BP’s stock price was more than 40% higher than where it had stood at its low.
This seems curious, to say the least. There would have been no way of knowing in late June when the leak would finally be plugged, and therefore no way of estimating BP’s eventual financial liabilities. And yet that was when BP’s stock hit its low.
While it’s always possible the market was just being irrational, as a general rule it’s dangerous to think we’re right and the market is wrong. The market is a discounting mechanism, and in the days and weeks following that June 25 low, it became increasingly clear that efforts to plug the well would be ultimately successful, even if it was unclear how long it would take. That wasn’t dissimilar to the situation we face today, where we know that we’ll eventually beat back the virus, even if it’s unclear how long it will take.
We know now that investors’ collective judgment following BP’s June 2010 low was right, of course. The stock produced a 58.0% total return over the 12 months following its June 2010 low, according to FactSet, nearly tripling the S&P 500’s 19.9% (.SPX). Over the three years subsequent to that low, the stock produced a 19.8% annualized total return, versus 16.1% for the S&P 500.
Over that three-year period, in fact, BP beat Apple (AAPL) by 4.3 annualized percentage points. Apple was riding high in the summer of 2010, having just overtaken Microsoft (MSFT) to become the company with the second-largest market cap in the world—and yet BP still came out ahead.
To be sure, BP hasn’t outperformed either the S&P 500 or Apple over the nearly 10 years since its June 2010 low, having been particularly hard hit recently by the plunging price of oil. Still, since that low, BP has outperformed the oil-and-gas industry as a whole by 6.6 annualized percentage points. (I used the Vanguard Energy exchange-traded fund (VDE) as a proxy for the industry; see accompanying chart.)
What does all this mean for the current crisis? Don’t sit out this market for too long. The stock market’s low is likely to be registered well in advance of the economy’s low—and well in advance of when a vaccine or other effective treatment for the virus has been discovered. If you were to wait until either or both of these events had occurred before reinvesting in equities, you’d likely be late to the party.
This doesn’t mean the market won’t retest, or even break below, its March 23 low, when the S&P 500 was at 2237.40 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) at 18,591.93. It may very well do so if new developments emerge suggesting the likely eventual economic consequences of the pandemic will be worse than what was already discounted at those lows.
That’s what we should be focusing on, rather than waiting for confirmation that the economy has finally bottomed and a vaccine discovered.
Most students at California’s public universities won’t be returning to campus for classes this fall. San Diego State University conducted its commencement virtually this year.
PHOTO: MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS
California State University Maritime Academy, which is located in Vallejo. For schools that reopen, off-campus housing may be better-suited for social distancing than traditional dorms.
PHOTO: BEN MARGOT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Student Housing Solutions, which serves students near three Florida campuses including Florida State University, said it has leased for the fall about 60% of its properties. That’s about 15 percentage points behind preleasing levels at this time last year.
“Operators believe student housing is recession proof,” said Jennifer Pearce, chief executive of Student Housing Solutions. “But we’re not pandemic proof.”
Many colleges are still poised to open in the fall, which has kept student housing demand broadly in line with previous years. Preleasing for the U.S. student-housing industry through April stood at nearly 65%, which was barely changed from a year ago, according to real-estate data-analytics firm RealPage.
Still, analysts say the pandemic has undermined the notion that student housing is always a safe bet, and some warn that even campuses planning to open could soon change their minds.
“It just takes one outbreak to shut it all down again,” said John Pawlowski, a senior analyst at real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors.
Green Street last week downgraded industry giant American Campus Communities Inc. to sell from hold, citing concerns that occupancy could take a near-term hit. American Campus shares are down 20%, compared with a 7.8% gain for the S&P 500 stock index, since March 13.
With coronavirus-relief payments circulating and many Americans in isolation amid the pandemic, scammers are seizing on the moment to exploit the fear and uncertainty the outbreak is creating.
Seniors are among the most vulnerable as scammers often target them because they may have more assets or regular income and because they’re often more trusting than other age groups, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warns.
Among the myriad coronavirus-related schemes circulating: sending queries on stimulus checks in an attempt to pry financial information from vulnerable targets; offering unproven coronavirus test kits; and setting up bogus charities.
The Federal Trade Commission received 45,623 coronavirus-related consumer and small-business complaints through May 14, representing reported fraud loss of more than $33.84 million, with a median individual loss of nearly $500.
Other analysts have noted American Campus Communities’ properties are located near Midwest and Sunbelt state schools, where Covid-19 hasn’t been as prevalent and economies are opening back up.
American Campus Chief Executive Bill Bayless says leasing for the fall semester is shaping up similar to last year, and he anticipates students will return to their university towns even if some classes remain online.
The only publicly traded company purely dedicated to student housing manages nearly 138,000 beds world-wide and picked up 985 new students in March and April after campus dorms were closed, a rare surge of new tenants for that time of the year, Mr. Bayless said.
The company reported preleasing levels at 76.6% for the 2020-21 academic year, higher than the year-earlier rate of 76.2%.
Others reported a more dramatic slowdown. Blue Vista Capital Management LLC, which with affiliates owns or manages more than 35,000 beds near schools including Syracuse and the University of Southern California, was 7 percentage points ahead of last year before the pandemic; now it’s five points behind, at 65% preleased.
For schools that do open, off-campus housing may be better-suited for social distancing than traditional college dormitories because many feature private bathrooms and bedrooms for each student, and students don’t need to rely on communal dining halls.
Scion Group, which has more than 55,000 beds near 55 campuses around the country, including the University of Florida and Purdue University, said it’s already deep into discussions with at least two schools to reserve large blocks of space in off-campus buildings so students aren’t crammed together in dorms amid continuing health concerns.
The schools are looking to switch from doubles and triples to single-occupancy rooms, said Scion President Robert Bronstein. Some are planning to keep entire buildings empty, in case they need facilities for students under quarantine.
“Medium to long term, it is very much going to change the dynamic” between schools and their off-campus housing operators, Mr. Bronstein said.
The Internal Revenue Service is warning of scams to intercept the economic-impact payments that have been mailed to taxpayers. Taxpayers will likely encounter official-looking web pages or social media-based communications or receive phishing email, text messages, or other communications that request sensitive personal information or payments in order to receive an economic-impact payment, the agency warns. Taxpayers shouldn’t follow any embedded links or open any attached files, it says.
Scammers may offer to help seniors get their stimulus check if they first verify their Social Security or bank routing number, says Colleen Tressler, a consumer education specialist with the FTC. They may also try to get you to sign your check over to them or they may send you a bogus check that requires you to verify it online or by calling a number.
No one from the IRS will reach out by telephone, email, or in person asking for information to complete economic-impact payments, the agency says.
The Better Business Bureau offers more information on coronavirus-related scams that target economic-impact checks on its website. The Treasury Department also has websites for reporting IRS-related coronavirus scams and scams specifically targeting economic-impact payments.
Stimulus scams
Imposters are also trying to take advantage of the growing anxieties around the pandemic to tap into seniors’ Medicare benefits.
Common themes among Medicare scams are unsolicited phone calls to beneficiaries offering items and services related to coronavirus, such as Covid-19 testing and protective equipment, with no intent of delivery, according to a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The scams are designed to obtain Medicare beneficiary numbers to enable fraudsters to submit false claims for unrelated, unnecessary, or never-performed testing or services, as well as to steal the beneficiary’s identity.
Beneficiaries should share their Medicare number only with their doctor, pharmacist, hospital, health insurer, or other trusted health-care provider. Those who receive a call from someone claiming to represent Medicare, asking for their Medicare number or other personal information should hang up, the spokesman says. If a beneficiary needs to be tested for Covid-19, he or she should call his or her health-care provider directly.
Beneficiaries should also monitor their quarterly Medicare summary notice for any services for which they were billed but which they didn’t receive or request.
Those who suspect Medicare fraud can report it by calling Medicare’s toll-free customer service center at 1-800-633-4227.
Medicare beneficiary numbers