Customer Reviews

Who Can You Trust With Your Money?: Get the Help You Need Now and Avoid Dishonest Advisors

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Talk about betrayal. Not to diminish the impact of a man philandering on his wife, but to lie and steal from your mother, from your family, from your friends, from your colleagues, from your clients -- and, yes, from your wife -- is betrayal of the highest order of magnitude. Really, who can you trust?

Bonnie Kirchner tells us who when it regards our money in Who Can You Trust With Your Money?; an important, necessary, and timely book. Just as only Nixon could open relations with China, only Bonnie Kirchner could write this book. Kirchner is a Certified Financial Planner practitioner, was one of New England's leading TV personal finance reporters... and was a casualty of her ex-husband's (Brad Bleidt) notorious Ponzi scheme.

On November 10, 2004, I was on top of the world. My husband and I were commemorating a major milestone for the radio station we worked so hard to build. Finally we were taking programming twenty four hours, seven days a week. I couldn't have been more satisfied with my career, despite the grueling hours and the toll it was taking on my personal life. The morning after the celebration, our company's receptionist came to my office door with a package. It had my husband's writing on it, and I think we both drew the conclusion that it was an attempt by Brad to be romantic. "Too little, too late" was what I was thinking. Our marriage had been deteriorating since its inception five years prior... I opened the package and found a small recording device with a sticker pointing to the play button, which said "Press here" on it, once again in Brad's handwriting. I hit play. "Hello, Bonnie, it's me. Straight to the chase here. Tragic, tragic news..."
(From the book's Introduction.)

So this guy Bleidt is the largest Ponzi schemer in history (that is, until Bernie Madoff strides into the picture), and he lacks the courage to tell the truth in person, resorting to taped messages so he can continue to hide under his rock. Or fester in jail.

Bonnie Kirchner obviously is a quick study. She offers many tips on how to spot the red flags that could alert you to dishonest financial advisors:
* Do a "broker check"
* Check references
* Ask the right questions about any disturbing regulatory or disciplinary history on the part of the advisor or his/her firm
* Be wary of any discrepancies you discover or a lack of a desire on the potential advisor's part to provide you with requested information
* Don't accept vague explanations when it comes to investment strategies to be employed for your money
* Verify where your investments will be held and what insurance coverage exists
* Uncover potential compensation arrangements and determine whether or not they are in line with your expectations
* Assess whether the advisor is overly eager to accept your assets and if so, why?

Successful investing often confounds investors; Kirchner offers to her readers, in plain English, the answers she found to the questions posed above, and many others; her guidance helps investors of all types, shapes, and sizes.

The true beauty of Who Can You Trust With Your Money?, though, is that Kirchner does not stop with discerning fraud perpetrated by financial advisors, but delves deeply into the topics of wealth management and estate planning. Her book offers no Holy Grail of successful investing, nor how to uncover the next Google/GOOG; it ventures neither topic. Kirchner's subtle message is that successful money management requires effort, just as with successful relationships; no paved road to easy wealth exists.

Not what you want to hear, I am sure. Diligence and effort present their own rewards, though. As with all good things in life, the journey trumps the destination; Bonnie Kirchner shines a guiding light to help you on your way. In doing so, Who Can You Trust With Your Money? earns my highest recommendation; a book that belongs in every investor's library as handy resource, if not read frequently for the many insights it contains.

Anyone considering hiring a financial adviser should read this book. The author, an experienced financial planner and media personality, was deceived by her own husband,a dishonest financial planner who stole from his clients and family. The book offers essential advice about how you can avoid people like him.

I highly recommend this book for a practical, common sense approach to investing. The Introduction and first chapter are an amazing personal account of the authors experience as the ex-spouse of Brad Bleidt, convicted of a Ponzi Investment scheme. She details how scammers rob their clients through a detailed web of lies and deception. She then presents a chapter by chapter "workbook" of tips, advise, strategy and glossary of financial terms that is easy to read and even easier to apply to your investing "plan". As non-financial professional, I found it a great practical, easy read......and a "must" to have in your bookshelf for quick reference !!!

This is the best book I have seen on this subject. Easy to read, interesting, focused, and extremely useful. If you only read one book about how to protect yourself from dishonest money managers this is the one to get. The author's personal story is also interesting, but does not get in the way of dispensing invaluable advice and information.

You can't trust anybody. There, now you don't have to read this book.

Seriously, Kirchner does tell you how to spot a cheating financial advisor. She's a CFP and an MST. She knows the terrain. She tells of the tricks her dishonest compadres, like Bernie Madoff and Brad Bleidt, have used. You'll be less naive after hearing what she has to say. She paints a picture of a field where police are few, cheating is possible, and one must spend at least some time looking at all that paper they send you with a cynical eye. This is useful.

Less useful are the chapters where she makes checking up on your advisor into a bigger task than doing it all yourself would have been. If you're planning to quit you job and spend your days checking up on your advisor, you'll love this book. The rest of us are going to react "Get real."

Enough good stuff here that I give it three stars. I do feel more worldly for having read "Who Can You Trust ...".

Excellent book, covering both the danger of Bernie Madoff type scams and the complexity of financial management. The need for competent and honest support in managing your financial matters and how to look for and acquire it.

This book deals with investing. I remember when Brad would show up on the show. It gave a sense of quality investing info. What a shame.
Bonnie, thanks for surviving and through this book, try to help keep someone else from being scammed.

Bob.

The author of this book has been through the ringer. As one who advised people to be careful in their investing, she found that her husband had been stealing from his investment clients. Shades of Madoff and his sons.

She uses her ex-husband as an example of what to avoid in investment advisors, and adds in data from the Madoff scandal. She then moves on to be more generic in what investors have to look for in order to avoid being cheated.

The book moves on to explain financial planning, and understand:

Certifications
Compensation and Fee Structures
Formal Communications
All the parties that affect pooled investments
How to choose an advisor
Red flags
How to employ an advisor
How to maintain the relationship
How to deal with minor and major failure in the advisor relationship.
She covers all of it. It is very basic, and not flashy. The juiciest part of the book is the troubles she had with her ex-husband. The rest is all business, which isn't bad, but it could have benefited from counterexamples to explain why this is the right way to do things.

Quibbles

The book has an exciting start, and it is all business after that. That is not horrible, but could have been more done to motivate the important aspects of protecting investments through citing more case examples.

Who would benefit from this book

Most average investors could benefit from the book.