<prompt> Human: Im not sure if this is more appropriate for rpersonalfinance or rinvesting, so Im posting to both. Sorry for the length, I broke it up into sections if you want to skip down to the investment question part.BackstoryLate last year, my grandfather passed away, and as a result my mother inherited a bit of money. Shes not been the best at saving for retirement, mostly due to ignorance. For instance, a few years ago, she was complaining that her 401k wasnt making any money. I took a look and she was 100 invested in money market accounts and gold. She saw the words cash and gold and thought those would be good investments because they were money terms she understood, even though she was earning 1 a year on those investments.She knew that I know a bit about investing, so she asked me to help her invest this money. I opened a Roth IRA for her and put 13,000 maxing both 2017 and 2018 into a Vanguard Target Retirement Fund. She had more to invest, but I told her I wanted to do some research before telling her how to invest in the after-tax account.This was about three weeks ago.Current issueMy brother works for a large regional bank where my mother has an account. He told her that she can speak with a financial advisor for free since shes a customer. My brother works with the guy she met with, and he trusts him. Im not as convinced because I feel like hes getting jerked around by the people at his work about financing for a home, but thats another post for another day. After meeting with the advisor she said that he recommended a CD, and I told her absolutely not. She asked me to go with her to meet the advisor because she doesnt understand this stuff and wants someone with her who does. So I went yesterday Friday. I listened to what the guy said, and he was recommending an asset Id never heard of before.Investment questionThe financial advisor wanted to put all her money into index or market-tied CDs. He explained them to me, and I feel like its too good to be true. Here are some of the features of the index CDs he was pushing. They have a 7-year term The principal is guaranteed and FDIC insured, so youll always, at worst, get principal back The returns are based on the performance of an underlying asset Theres no cap on the earnings after doing some research, some of these have an earnings cap Theres no early-termination fee or any other fees Theyre based on the issuing bank trading options If you hold the CD to term, theyll multiply your earnings. The 7-year ones had a 2.25 multiplier, meaning if the investment made 1,000, youd get 2,250.He showed us these charts showing how the return since 2010 has been between 83 and 135, but I dont know how that compares to an SP index fund.This sounds too good to be true, but I couldnt find the rub. I told my mom it seemed interesting, and she can always move her money if she didnt like it since theres no early termination fee.Financial Advisor IssueMy mom didnt tell me beforehand, but after agreeing to the index CD, she transferred all her Roth assets including the IRA Id set up in January, as well as an additional 60,000 for this. I did not know she was going to invest all of it.After I left, I started getting a bad feeling in my gut. I didnt like that he is going to liquidate her Vanguard Roth that had just been set up. My brother ended up telling me he doesnt actually work for the bank, but is contracted from another firm. He gets commissions off selling these not fee-based in other words. And I didnt like the way he answered my questions. For example, I asked him how the bank makes money off these, he just told me Trust me, theyre making their money. Its not charity. Okay, but how?Again, sorry for the length.TL;DR Mother got inheritance and invested a lot of money in index or market-tied CDs. They sound too good to be true. Also, I think the financial advisor may not have been completely above board and convinced her to roll her IRAs as well as 60,000 into these CDs.  <response>: Hes a salesman, not an advisor with a fiduciary duty. You got a bad feeling because you didnt understand the investment because its probably either really risky or a crappy product. He could care less about your moms retirement because he gets commission for closing the sale. Her best bet would be to put it back in the Vanguard Roth and invest in a target date fund until she gets more educated and more comfortable. 