Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., announced the Senate’s unanimous approval of legislation he introduced to protect military personnel against individuals using deceitful practices to sell financial products.

The Senate passed the Military Personnel Financial Services Protection Act last night.

"This legislation halts abuses that have been taking place on military bases for decades and most recently brought to light by a series of New York Times articles. I have been working to make sure that military families will no longer be taken advantage of by snake oil salesmen hawking sham financial products. This bill is a testament to bipartisan cooperation that honors our men and women in uniform," said Enzi, member of the Senate Banking Committee.

Some financial services companies have been disguising, marketing and selling high cost periodic payment plan certificates solely to military personnel on military bases. These plans, nonexistent in the civilian market, are similar to mutual funds except that extremely high sales commissions rob investors of years of earnings and penalize them when they stop investing in the fund. Some insurance products that provide very low death benefits while charging very high premiums are marketed specifically to soldiers. Salespersons have disguised the product to appear endorsed by the Department of Defense or the federal government. Many investors who fell prey to these types of sales became aware that they were scams too late.

The bill would provide for state insurance regulator jurisdiction over the sale of insurance products on military bases. It would also require the Department of Defense to keep a list of individuals barred or banned from military bases because of abusive sales tactics. Military families would also be protected under the bill because it would prevent investment companies from issuing periodic payment plan certificates, an outdated form of mutual fund with high up front costs and penalties.

The House passed a similar bill, H.R. 458, last year by a vote of 405-2. A conference committee can now be assigned to reconcile differences between the House and Senate version or the House can take up the Senate version of the bill.