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Tom Thames is a financial adviser out of central California (Folsom, Lodi, etc). I believe that I have a public duty to notify consumers about the type of jaw dropping “investment advice” that Tom Thames once provided for me. I made the HUGE HUGE mistake of putting my trust in C Thomas Thames as my investment adviser, and I’ve set up a web site about my horrible experience with Tom Thames because my 1 star review mysteriously keeps getting removed off of other sites like Yelp, Google and Superpages. What good are these “business review sites" if 1 star reviews aren’t allowed, are easily removed, etc? So what C Thomas Thames would do is sell me a variable annuity in unusually large dollar amounts, then a relatively short while later he would “change his mind” about the annuity he just sold me, and then instruct me to switch a full 100% of the money to another variable annuity at a huge penalty. He pulled this routine so many times that it cost me at least $58, 000.00 dollars in early surrender penalties until I wised up and ceased having Tom manage my account. I have since learned that variable annuities are NOT even considered “trading vehicles" in the first place. Variable annuities are meant to be held for many many years -- NOT months! I encourage EVERYONE reading this review to ask any honest financial planner or knowledgeable lawyer for confirmation on this! Yet Tom treated variable annuities sort of like they were stocks, constantly calling for me to buy and then sell or exchange them at huge penalties. Shockingly he called for these switches after only about 3 months, 7 1/2 months, 8 months, 8 months, 8 1/2 months, and 17 months! Tom will probably try to “blame the client" for following his advice but what he conveniently ignores is the central question that sticks out like a sore thumb: What on earth was C T Thames doing giving this type of "advice" in the FIRST PLACE? Years later I have learned that, lo and behold, investment advisers typically earn BIG sales commissions from insurance companies when they can convince their clients to switch annuity contracts. I don’t officially know if Tom gained financially from all of these annuity switches, because he never said anything, and the insurance companies that sell annuities won’t disclose this information either. It’s kept secret (go figure!). I can only guess. But based on the simple facts of Tom’s “trading" recommendations and what I’ve consistently read about annuities and the investment advisers who push them, I think it’s pretty obvious why Tom Thames wanted me to continually switch 100% of these illiquid investments in short time spans and in excessive large dollar amounts. From what I can tell the only person who COULD have made money (and lots of it) from constantly having me switch annuities was Tom Thames himself -- all indirectly at my expense. Again, annuities are not meant to be treated as “trading vehicles" yet Tom was Gung-ho about wanting me to switch annuities, AND he was the “financial professional” who processed the paperwork for these transactions. I have posted images of actual irrefutable documents for readers to view and I discuss all of this in much greater detail on a nonprofit web site that I set up at cthomasthames-review dot com. Protect your money everyone. I hope that consumers can learn something from my horrible experience with investment adviser Tom Thames.
QUICK UPDATE REGARDING THIS REVIEW: I doubt there would be a sole who would be confused by my title. Just read it as "[This is a story about] Tom Thames treating variable annuities as trading vehicles". Or simply read the review or the website that I set up about my client experience. Simple.
To anyone reading Tom's hot air, search for the website "C. Thomas Thames, My ONE STAR REVIEW of the investment adviser". Unfortunately I don't think ComplaintsBoard allows links. Then have ANY investment advisor review what Tom did. Specifically ask them if there is anything remotely normal about an investment professional recommending that a client constantly and repeatedly surrender variable annuities (6 times) after holding periods of mere months and their answer will be UNEQUIVOCALLY NO! Ask them about EVERY adviser's DUTY to be sure that their clients do not absorb excessive transaction costs. Four of these six transactions that Tom recommended and processed had surrender penalties of over 7%! The others had 4 1/2% and 3 1/2% surrender penalties. In short order this cost me over $59, 000 in multiple early surrender penalties.
The American College will not even disclose what their criteria is for reviewing cases. It's kept secret. Therefore, just as an example, if they have a time limit for lodging complaints then that would automatically prevent them from taking any action against Tom. The American College is absolutely not the same as a court of law. Tom knows that, but he's insinuating otherwise. Tom's best friend is the statute of limitations. Ask Tom why he doesn't waive his statute of limitations rights with regard to the court process if he's such an angel? I would love for him to agree to that!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I think you should report this to some kind of licensing board, FTC, SEC, your state AG and a local TV station.
Go to daveramsey.com and click on ELP - enter your zip code to a the endorsed local provider. these guys have the heart of a teacher and will not let you invest in something you don't understand.
I find this kind of criticism very suspicious and I am not surprised that Yelp and Google removed it. How anyone could make several business transactions and pay $58, 000 in fees without knowing it is a mystery to me. He says he made unusually large investments. They must have been huge investments if he didn't notice $58, 000 in fees.
I doubt that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are that careless with their money. The complaint smelled a little fishy to me so I did a little research. It took me about 10 minutes to learn that SacramentoKings has used a lot of other names to spread his complaint and that he and Mr. Thames were partners in a furniture business 20 years ago when these annuity transactions supposedly took place. That is relevant information that SacramentoKings failed to mention. There may be some truth to SacramentoKings complaint but I think some former business partners are like some former spouses. They can be very vindictive. I also wonder if SacramentoKings has filed any complaints against the insurance companies. They had to know that annuities were being exchanged and if the exchanges were improper I don't think they would have allowed the transactions to happen just to accommodate Mr. Thames. This sounds like one of those he-said-she-said arguments that will never be resolved, but if the insurance company records are checked, my guess is that Mr. Thames will be vindicated.
I am C. Thomas Thames the subject of the SacramentoKings (alias) review.
Most of what SacramentoKings claims on his cthomasthames-review website is absolutely false and he has never to this day (August 6, 2014) even identified the names of the companies and products he is complaining about. Nor has he ever acknowledged that his real name is Peter Dzoghi, but it surely is. It is very easy to hide behind aliases and make accusations when you don't have to prove everything you say and Peter Dzoghi is certainly using that to his advantage.
Peter Dzoghi did buy annuities from me about 22 years ago and he did exchange those annuities and pay surrender charges, but he knew exactly what he was doing and why he was doing it. The insurance company records will prove that but Peter Dzoghi doesn't want that to happen so he refuses to identify himself, the companies, or the products. Peter Dzoghi is also a disgruntled former business partner of mine in a furniture manufacturing business. We sold that business for a loss to all three partners (including me, Peter Dzoghi, and one of Peter Dzoghi's relatives) so his thirst for revenge is not entirely related to the annuities. By the way I believe he still holds two of the annuities that I sold him.
Anyone who wants to read both sides of the story should go to his website www.cthomasthames-review dot com and to my website www.cthomasthames-peterdzoghi dot com. It's a long and tedious story but I am very happy to disclose everything I know about it.
C. Thomas Thames (aka Tom Thames, C.T. Thames)
I am C. Thomas Thames the subject of the review written by SacramentoKings and this is an addendum to my August 6, 2014 comment.
SacramentoKings is actually Peter Dzoghi and he has used more than a dozen different aliases to post negative review. His website
headline is: C. Thomas Thames My ONE STAR REVIEW. If you find a negative review of C. Thomas Thames, it will be Peter Dzoghi,
using one of his many aliases.
I am C. Thomas Thames the subject of the review by SacramentoKings and this is the second addendum to my August 6, 2014 posting on this site. As of this date 03/27/16 Peter Dzoghi still has not disclosed the names of the companies or products he is complaining about. It is very obvious that the company records will prove that he was fully aware of all charges and that he has no reason to complain. After nearly 24 years, in January of 2016 he filed his first official ethics complaint and that was with the American College of Bryn Mawr, PA. The Certification Committee voted unamimously to take no action on that case. That did not surprize me at all. I would have expected the same result if Dzoghi had filed a complaint with FINRA, the SEC, or any other agency. I was happy that he filed the complaint because he has finally comfirmed that his real name is Peter A. Dzoghi. You can read about the American College and my full response to Dzoghi's review at www.cthomasthames-reviews.com. Dzoghi wants readers to believe that I am trading variable annuities simply because i traded a few for him over 20 years ago. That's a very weak argument because I haven't sold a variable annuity since 2001 and that was about 15 years ago. Frankly I am no longer paying much attention to Peter Dzoghi because I am convinced he will never stop whining and he obviously doesn't want all of the facts published. If he did he would identify the products he is complaining about so that I can obtain and publish my reasons for recommending those variable annuity exchanges 24 years ago. Yes, 24 years ago.