HELENA — The Office of the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance put on a couple of outreach events this week. One, to help young entrepreneurs in the world of business and another to keep folks safe from financial exploitation.
During Tuesday’s lecture Brett Olin, Deputy Securities Commissioner, told Carroll College students about ways in which entrepreneurs can gain capital from investors. He advised them on the correct ways to do this in order to protect not only themselves but investors, as well.
“In five years, we want to make sure that they're like, oh, I remember that class I had at Carroll or at MSU or wherever they are, and they remember that one, that our office is here and we're here to help them make sure they get all their documents in a row and make sure that everything is, whenever they are seeking capital, that they're out there doing it correctly,” says Olin.
On Thursday’s meeting at Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church, the office spoke to folks about how to detect and prevent financial exploitation.
“And we see it a lot with people who are isolated and that's why we speak to our elder community, because a lot of times they do live alone. They may have children that are in other cities or things along that nature. And we want to make sure that they know what scams are out there and that they're reaching out to us,” says Olin.
These events are precursors to events happening later in the year. A capital formation tour will occur most likely in the summer. And in March, the office will tour talking about financial exploitation.
Olin says that for those interested in these topics, there is more information available online at CSIMT.gov.
“...which talk about and can help you identify if the person that you're dealing with has been registered with our office, for example. That's kind of the front line of protection is registration,” says Olin.
