How Good Are Answers if They Fail to Address Your Issues

You, the financial consumer, should expect good communication from any professional regardless if they are a planner, broker, or private wealth manager. We don’t believe that any planner or broker would want to give less either.

However, there are times when many communications and answers given to a client fail to address the issues at hand. This may seem counter-intuitive, so let us give you some examples.

Given the shaky market we’ve seen over the last decade, you were probably told at some point that “You have to realize your investments are long-term”, especially when discussing significant losses.

We fail to see how this answers your concern about losing money. Your investment strategy or philosophy should be long-term, but buying and holding a bad investment will rarely have a positive outcome for the client. Management involves routine evaluation of the investments and removing those that are counterproductive to the goals of the investor

Another common response we hear in response to a poor performing investment is “That’s only a paper loss unless you actually sell it”. An investment worth exactly what its value is on a given day when the market closes. If you invest $50,000 in something three years ago that is worth $30,000, you have lost $20,000. There is no crystal ball to tell us if it will ever come back.

There are many reasons why you may hear these universal answers to your questions. Pride-not wanting to admit failure-could be one. People not liking bad news or sharing bad news is another. Finally, people have a wrong assessment of their own ability when it comes to finances.

Money is NOT that complicated if you use common sense and we use easy to understand terms. If something doesn’t seem right or add up to you, there is probably something wrong!

To hear the Smart Money Radio Show segment where Bruce discusses dissecting the information out there for your benefit, Click Here! (about 7 minutes long)


To hear the full Smart Money Radio Show where Bruce discusses Private Wealth Management, Click Here! (about 25 minutes long)