Minors Fund Losses and Politics

WLOS reported on the outrage among parents. I'm sorry to have missed last night's meeting in Birdtown last night, but I did see the noted report. Principal Chief Michell Hicks called it a political ploy. "There are individuals that are trying to get some mileage making tribal leaders look bad," he said. Well yeah, those seeking to unseat incumbents are going to campaign on this issue. If one recalls, Obama and other Democrats got into office campaigning on the poor economic situations caused in part by his predecessor. However, the writing was on the wall before the crash, particularly with real estate, and those with the power to do something chose to do nothing. As one parent noted, tribal leaders made themselves look bad.
When you hand your enemy a loaded gun, don't be surprised if they shoot you with it. Tribal members have every right to be angry about this issue, and the status quo is giving opponents plenty of ammunition, with this, with padding benefits during hard economic times, with downplaying how bad things really are.
The fact is the kids' money was being invested in incredibly risky ventures, which is fine with part of a retirement portfolio designed for withdrawals in 30-35 years. With retirement portfolios, account holders have the option to rearrange their investments into low risk investments to protect their assets. These children, whose investments were to be 15-18 years in most cases, didn't have that option. Some kids were planning to use that money for college, and for most people $20,000 is a lot to lose. There were and are less risky ways to invest this money that not only with grow the money but will minimize, even prohibit losses.
Yes this is a political issue, but the anger is real.