Pension could be next. I think there is a good chance Pension is likely to be holding some of that high yield European debt. A broker that will bet the farm on a race track investment is likely to have done other high risk activities.
No, I don't think so. AFAIK you get an unsecured claim in court saying that MF Global - a company in bankruptcy - owes you money. Unsecured means there's no asset (like a piece of real estate) that has been designated exclusively as a security for your funds. You're standing in the same line as say some utility company whose bills weren't paid. If like in this case there's likely fraud involved one can try going after the personal assets of the person(s) perpetrating the fraud. However, the legal costs and effort are probably huge while the probability of recovery are slim at best.
I believe the SIPC does cover funds missing from segregated accounts wikipedia "By law, investors' assets and the brokerage's assets must be segregated; they may not be commingled. It could be a civil and/or criminal violation if an investor's assets were inappropriately commingled. If the firm files for bankruptcy, provided the assets have been appropriately segregated, the investor's assets should be recoverable, beyond SIPC's current protection limit of $500,000, of the net equity, per account and $250,000 for cash claims. " If there is protection beyond the limits with segregation this suggests there limits could apply under no segregation but I don't know for sure
words of wisdom from the movie margin call you are panicking. if you are 1st out of the door that is not panicking.
Has anyone tried unsuccessfully to pull money out? Or is nervously waiting for a wire to hit their account?
SIPC does not cover certain things, like futures contracts for instance, or cash in a futures account. I'm not really familiar with the type of accounts MF Global has...but SIPC basically covers securities, not futures. OldTrader