The Third Pig

Hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. The weather in the Northeast was great and considering how bad things could have been, Gustav thankfully spared most of New Orleans. As well as enjoying the weather I was able to watch the U.S. Open, take in the movie The Longshots (you know for the kid) followed up with a visit to the park and was able to catch up with old and new friends online (there’s this new thing called social media…).

In catching up with one of those friends, we got to talking about investing and personal finances. Big surprise right? She alerted me to a story of which I was unaware at the time. The story was simultaneously tragic and unbelievable. When I went to Google to read more about it, it then became all too familiar. What I found was yet another story of fraud and deception and the stealing of investor money.

As I read more of the details of this particular yet hardly unique story, the warnings signs seemed so clear to me. I thought to myself, “Some of these investors should have known better!” But alas, even so-called sophisticated investors can be had. No one is immune from making mistakes or getting taken by a sophisticated or savvy charlatan (like the one in the video).

All that said there are steps that can be taken to protect yourself from dishonest (or just plain bad) financial ‘professionals”. It is as important to know what makes a bad financial professional as it is a good one. In at least another two follow up posts I will cover warning signs that should alert any investor their advisor may not be on the up and up.

Have you had a not so pleasant experience with a financial professional? Share it in the comments are of this post.