The Right Way to Hire Financial Help [Hardcover]

Charles A. Jaffe (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262100703 | ISBN-13: 978-0262100700 | Publication Date: March 15, 1999 | Edition: 1st

Hiring financial help is a task that many otherwise savvy people approach the wrong way, opting to go on recommendations from family and friends, chance encounters, or advertisements rather than on sound research. In witty, highly readable prose, nationally syndicated columnist Charles A. Jaffe takes the reader through the basics of how to locate appropriate candidates, understand their credentials, check references, conduct initial interviews, maintain control of the relationships and one's finances, and fire an adviser who is not working out.

The book contains guidance on hiring and checking the backgrounds of seven types of advisers—brokers, financial planners, insurance agents, lawyers, tax preparers, bankers, and real estate agents—as well as specific questions to ask to determine whether an adviser is a good, qualified match. In addition the book offers guidance on how to help the advisers function as a team. The author's aim is to help the reader assemble and manage a pool of advisers to serve every major need for the rest of a financial lifetime.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In contrast to the recent spate of books recommending the advantages of discount brokerage services, those advising how to do your own taxes, and others touting financial independence, Boston Globe columnist Jaffe urges us to assemble our own team of personal financial advisers. Our financial futures are too important, he warns, to risk going it alone. For anyone who has ever wondered how to find a "good" broker or lawyer, Jaffe's advice will prove invaluable--especially since little comparable information has heretofore been available. He lays out the criteria one must use in selecting financial help, discusses the question of commission fees, offers tips on seeking referrals, and issues a caveat on hiring friends. For each category of adviser, Jaffe outlines roles and responsibilities, explains how to locate "candidates," suggests questions to ask, and details how fees are paid. He also profiles how each profession is regulated and describes agencies and associations in each field that one can turn to when there is a complaint. David Rouse

Review

"The Right Way to Hire Financial Help goes where no other personal finance book has gone before. Chuck Jaffe offers solid, no-nonsense advice that can help people save—and even make—a bundle. Dont even think twice about hiring a financial professional until youve read this book."
—Gerri Detweiler, financial author and former director of the National Council of Individual Investors

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1st edition (March 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262100703
• ISBN-13: 978-0262100700
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,448,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a Jaffe fan: This book is what we have come to expect, August 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Right Way to Hire Financial Help: A Complete Guide to Choosing and Managing Brokers, Financial Planners, Insurance Agents, Lawyers, Tax Preparers, Bankers, and Real Estate Agents (Paperback)

I read Mr. Jaffe's column every week in the Boston Globe and bought this book after hearing him talk on this subject atthe Globe's personal finance conference (he autographed the book for me).

This book gave me exactly what I have come to expect from Mr. Jaffe: Clear, insightful, unafraid commentary that helped give me the courage to go through with choosing a financial planner. I learned which questions to ask, and I took the book with me and asked those questions. And while it's early to tell (Mr. Jaffe says all the time that anything less than one year is not really long enough to judge), I am happy with my financial planner and expect to stay that way for a long time.

As for the reviewer who thought this book was redundant, he must have skipped the introduction. That's where Mr. Jaffe explains why parts of the book are redundant and advises more knowledgeable investors to skip the parts that they don't need.

If you do that, this book will give you exactly what you need. It certainly did for me.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs better focus, June 23, 2003

By 

half "half" (Diamond Bar, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Right Way to Hire Financial Help - 2nd Ed.: A Complete Guide to Choosing and Managing Brokers, Financial Planners, Insurance Agents, Lawyers, Tax Preparers, Bankers, and Real Estate Agents (Paperback)

A previous reviewer who accused the book of having too much fluff is, unfortunately, only slightly exaggerating. If the author had taken the time to tighten up the book and used only half as many words as he did, the resulting book would have been first rate useful. As it is, the book is a serious test of one's patience and concentration. The ideas are very reasonable, but the reader has to struggle to separate the wheat from the chaff.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forces you to practice due diligence, April 26, 2001

By 

David Roth (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Right Way to Hire Financial Help - 2nd Ed.: A Complete Guide to Choosing and Managing Brokers, Financial Planners, Insurance Agents, Lawyers, Tax Preparers, Bankers, and Real Estate Agents (Paperback)

Some people might think that Jaffe's book is obvious. But what's obvious to some may be revolutionary and important to others.

The book outlines questions that should be asked of any financial proessionals one is considering hiring, and suggests interviewing at least three of each type of adviser to learn differences and to become comfortable.

Jaffe's advice is so good that it is almost impossible not to gain many times the cost of the book in better financial planning and better peace of mind that one has proceeded with due diligence.