SEC to Spotlight Financial Planning and Resilience during World Investor Week 2022

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it will highlight the importance of long-term planning and investor resilience during World Investor Week (WIW) 2022, which takes place October 3-9. Planning for life’s unexpected challenges, being mindful of economic conditions, and creating an investment portfolio for the long term help investors set strong foundations to build their financial futures.

This marks the sixth year of WIW, a global effort promoted by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) that brings together regulators on six continents to raise awareness about the importance of investor education and protection. As in previous years, the SEC is serving as the national coordinator in the U.S., working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, National Futures Association, and North American Securities Administrators Association. Together with these organizations, the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) issued a joint Investor Bulletin today to promote WIW's key initiatives.

During WIW, SEC staff will host outreach events highlighting the importance of establishing an emergency fund, avoiding high-interest debt, conducting research on investment opportunities, understanding the risks of investing, portfolio diversification, and fraud prevention.

“Investor protection is core to our mission at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and we are honored to serve as the national coordinator in the United States for World Investor Week,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “To advance the week’s central theme—investor resilience—our agency will host a series of events to help investors learn how to build a secure financial future. I encourage the public to go to Investor.gov, where we share our evolving library of resources to help people invest, save, avoid common mistakes, and protect themselves from fraud.”

To promote investor protection, Chair Gensler emphasized in a new video that investors should consider the risks before investing based solely on celebrity endorsements of investment products, such as crypto tokens or Special Purpose Acquisition Companies.

The SEC’s OIEA also posted new videos to teach investors how to spot and avoid scams. The videos use a fictional online investment program, called HoweyTrade, to show investors what investment scams may look like. The videos will be used in outreach presentations by SEC staff and by educators to teach financial literacy.

“We created the HoweyTrade videos to provide a compelling and interactive way to help educate investors on how to avoid investment fraud,” said Lori Schock, OIEA’s Director. “The video encourages investors to beware of potentially fraudulent investments, to conduct a background check on anyone offering an investment, and to use the free and simple search tool on Investor.gov to ensure any person or business offering an investment is registered by the SEC to sell securities.”

The SEC’s WIW page highlights messaging on investor resilience and includes a quiz that investors can use to test their knowledge of key investing concepts. In addition, OIEA issued an updated Saving and Investing for Military Personnel Investor Bulletin, which serves as a roadmap for service members to help them build wealth over time and protect their investments from scams.

The SEC’s WIW outreach events include:

• Saving and investing presentations for older investors, military service members, students, and teachers;
• Investor education events for college students, including events at Historically Black Colleges and Universities;
• A Facebook live event with AARP;
• Radio interview on topics important to older investors; and
• Thrift Savings Plan program for federal employees.

Please visit the SEC's World Investor Week page to see a list of other SEC outreach activities. Additional investor education and protection resources are available at Investor.gov.