Introduction
This book is evidently written for financial advisors, as career advice. I had expected it to be more in the nature of an analysis of the industry, best practices, and predictions for the future. There was some of that, but it was largely a career guide for the practitioner.
The author documents significant differences between success and failure among financial advisors:
- Successful advisors track trends and are prepared in advance for changes
- Successful advisors implant systems and procedures to handle simple tasks and reserve themselves for situations where their expertise is best applied
- Successful advisors are focused on helping their clients
The author documents significant differences between success and failure among financial advisors:
- Successful advisors track trends and are prepared in advance for changes
- Successful advisors implant systems and procedures to handle simple tasks and reserve themselves for situations where their expertise is best applied
The task he sets for himself in this book is to provide "thoughts, ideas, and wisdom" from practicing financial advisors - implicitly, for imitation - based on over two decades of personal experience as a journalist in the industry.
He gripes a bit about the inadequacy of other channels - print and online periodicals, primarily - in consolidating best practices and providing them in a manner than can be easily assimilated, hence the need to write a book on the subject.
Resources
There is a vast amount of information out there, and the author advocates "the test of time" - stay away from services that hose you down with daily or weekly information, and gravitate toward those that take a longer (bimonthly or quarterly approach). There area a lot of come-and-go fads, and publications that take a longer perspective tend to be better focused on the good ones.
A few specific suggestions:
- The Seven Stages of Money Maturity by George Kinder (Delacorte:1999) cited as a reference for life planning (Also www.sevenstages.com)
- "Inside Information" (EN: The author's own service, which costs $179 a year) that includes articles and community features, and this book is a consolidation of ideas "harvested" from that environment.