The financial services world is changing. Technology is enabling an automated approach to investing that should bring down the cost of commodity services. No longer do you have to fund the lifestyle of a broker or advisor to have him tell you how to diversify or where to find the next investment that cannot be missed. This book will provide the tools for calculators that tell you most of what you need to know; from how much insurance you need to have to how you should diversify. The book will help readers with the following:
Understand what you have.
- Plan your long-term goals.
- Start to save (maximizing your 401k).
- Reduce debt.
- Run your Monte Carlo Simulation.
- Determine the appropriate asset allocation.
- Set up your auto-rebalancing and periodically (annually, perhaps) re-examining your asset allocation to account for globalization.
- Deploy the asset mix through low cost, tax-efficient strategies.
- Look at it once per year.
This book will provide a better understanding of your investment decisions. But, we all cannot be do-it-yourselfers. Advisors serve as an important resource for consumers when they are both capable and understand their duty to serve you, the customer, first. To complement their moral station, they must have the skills to deliver appropriate advice. The book, much like the company Steve founded, will simplify standards for consumers and audit advisors to those standards.
Praise for Get Wise to Your Advisor
"Get Wise to Your Advisor is a bracing wake-up call for investors everywhere. Steve Lockshin shows that while many financial advisors do great work, others work in a system where their own self-interest inevitably trumps the interests of their clients. This sharp and accessible guide can help you separate the solid from the slippery and put your own financial life on firmer ground."
—Daniel Pink, New York Times bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind
"In an era when both good and bad advice abounds in every channel of the advisory market, Get Wise to Your Advisor demystifies the options for the uninitiated investor. Wisdom is often borne of skepticism, and with Get Wise to Your Advisor, Lockshin provides a practical guide to help clients be thoughtful, careful, and prudent in selecting and assessing a financial advisor. His blunt and forthright overview of the tricks of unscrupulous practitioners will no doubt keep many from being duped. Bravo!"
—Sterling Shea, Managing Director, Head of Advisory Programs, Barron's
"A top-ranked Barron's advisor with an admirable sense of social justice serves as an intrepid guide through a complex, conflict-riddled industry. Steve is fighting for what's right for individuals seeking investment advice, armed with fluency in behavioral economics, a level head, and a vision of how technology is changing Wall Street, finally."
—Jon Stein, CFA, founder and CEO, Betterment.com
"Get Wise to Your Advisor is a must-read. Lockshin simplifies and demystifies much of the Wall Street mumbo jumbo that inhibits investor success. If you're not 100% sure that your advisor is on your side, Steve's book will help you find out and, if necessary, shop for a new advisor who puts your interests first."
—Curtis Polk, Vice Chairman, Charlotte Bobcats (NBA); manages the financial and business affairs of Michael Jordan and his related companies
Contents
Chapter 1 Is This Any Way to Choose an Advisor
- Bad Financial Medicine
- A Murky Industry
- “You Should Meet My Guy”
- Key Points
Chapter 2 Wall Street’s Dirty Secrets
- The More Things Change
- “You Don’t Understand ”
- Misplaced Interests
- Brokers and Advisors
- Wall Street Brokers versus Main Street Consumers
- Peddling Products
- Omission versus Commission
- Key Points
Chapter 3 The Wall Street Whitewash
- Image Is Everything
- Shopping Shortcuts
- Vegas Rules
- Key Points
Chapter 4 Hold Your Nose: Other Advisor Options
- Bank-Based Advisors
- Private Banking and Trust Departments
- Asset Managers
- Insurance Salesmen
- Fee-Only Planners
- Other Options
- Technology’s Triumph
- Key Points
Chapter 5 The Case for Independent RIAs
- The Trouble with Fee-Only Advisors
- The Case for Independent RIAs
- Buyer Beware
- Do All RIAs Live Up to Their Title?
- Disorienting Disclosure
- RIAs: A Good Place to Start
- Key Points
Chapter 6 Our Lazy Brains: Why We’re So Bad at Choosing Advisors (and Investing Our Own Money)
- The Gut versus the Mind
- Salesmanship
- What You See Is All There Is
- My Advisor Is Handsome, So Why Am I Broke?
- Why We Stink at Managing Our Own Money
- Key Points
Chapter 7 How to Be Your Own Investment Advisor
- Don’t Let Costs Mug Your Returns
- How to Win the Game by Not Playing
- Software-Powered Investing
- Math First, Emotion Second
- Why You (Probably) Still Need a Financial Advisor
- Key Points
Chapter 8 Choosing an Advisor: Know What You Don’t Know
- You Are the Family CEO
- Core Principle: DUTY—Clients before Profits
- Core Principle: SAFEGUARDS
- Core Principle: PROFESSIONALISM
- Decoding your Advisor’s Answers
- After the Interview
- Key Points
Chapter 9 Fees and Ice Cream: Baskin-Robbins Got It Right, Why Can’t We?
- Chocolate and Vanilla
- Baskin-Robbins 31 3 Flavors?
- Key Pricing Ingredients (Building a Custom Sundae)
- Chapter 10 Change the Game
- Why Wait?
- Afterword: Advisors in Perspective
- Index
About the Authors
- Steven D. Lockshin is the founder and former CEO of Convergent Wealth Advisors, one of the nation's leading wealth management firms, providing investors with objective advice, flexible investment solutions, and transparency. He helped pioneer the open architecture approach to investing and was an early adopter of asset allocation strategies for high-net-worth clients.
Book Details
- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 3, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1118700732
- ISBN-13: 978-1118700730
- Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
- List Price: $40.00