Iowa Consumer Protection News

H&R Block gets sued

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued H&R Block on Wednesday, claiming the nation's largest tax preparer fraudulently sold hundreds of thousands of clients individual retirement accounts that were "virtually guaranteed to lose money because of a combination of hidden fees and low interest rates."

Ironically, the suit was filed on the same day the Office of Thrift Supervision granted H&R Block a charter to operate a federal savings bank, which will let it sell more products and services to its tax-return clients, most of whom are low or moderate income.

Block says it's proud of its Express IRA and will fight the suit vigorously. "At a time when the country's personal savings rate has declined to minus 0.7 percent, we've helped 596,000 of our clients begin saving for their future, and more than 40 percent of them had never saved before," H&R Block Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Ernst said in a press release.

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	Did You Know?
	While a product might not have a written warranty, under state law, consumers are guaranteed certain implied warranties.