The Florida Office of Financial Regulation has confirmed that it has opened an investigation into financial advisor Gerald Baum, who last month abruptly closed his office in The Villages.
A representative for the state office said the investigation was launched as a result of reporting by Villages-News.com on Baum and his now-shuttered office at Lake Sumter Landing.
Ever since a piece of paper announcing the office’s closure was Scotch-taped to the window at the Baum Financial office at Lake Sumter Landing, his clients say Baum has been impossible to contact. Several of the now-elderly clients are under the guardianship of their adult children, who have found they are unable to tap into their parents’ sorely needed nest eggs…