Tag Archives: Financial experts

5 Reasons Why Sales Pitches From An Advisor Are Dangerous

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Investor Watchdog | Select, Retain, Replace Financial AdvisorsYou are interviewing an investment advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals – in particular, retirement goals that will determine when you retire and your standard of living during retirement. What could be more important than that? You really like an advisor’s personality and communication skills. He understands your needs and says what you want to hear when you select an advisor.

How do you know this advisor is not a skilled sales person who knows how to develop relationships and develop trust so people buy what he is selling? You don’t know and you may not know for several years when you have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. By then it is always too late. The advisor has earned thousands of dollars of income from your assets and you have a lot less money than you should have.

How real is the problem? More than 50% of investors terminate new advisors within three years when expectations do not match what they were sold. Following are five tips that will reduce your risk of selecting the wrong advisor.  Continue reading →

U.S to Lose Triple A Rating?

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It seems that news sources have been inundating us with the opinions of economists that have stated if the Bush tax cuts are not maintained that we will all be in trouble. These economists all claim to be “experts” at determining where the economy is going. These are the very same experts that did not predict the 2008 financial crisis and did not foresee the current mess we are in. But now these experts are telling us to listen to them or else. I have to confess that I have studied economics and I haven’t found it very useful for prophesying, and I don’t believe economists are very good at predicting anything with the exception of the past.

An ominous side effect of the tax deal being approved is the lost of the United States’ triple A bond rating. In a Reuters headline, Moody’s warns of possibly reducing U.S.’s Aaa rating because of Tax Deal, the rating agency said it may lower the U.S.’s Aaa rating if the compromise on the Bush tax cuts and the extension of unemployment benefits becomes law. The agency’s concern is the increase debt levels, which would make a rating reduction more likely in the next 12 to 18 months. Then again, Moody’s, along with others, was giving sub-prime mortgage-back securities triple-A ratings that clearly did not deserve such a high grade. Just another alleged “expert’s” opinion.

Where are the Experts?

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Where do you get your financial advice? The newspapers? Financial Media? Journalists? Wall Street analysts? You may want to be careful about where you get your information and about those who advertise themselves as “experts.” There is a serious “expert” problem in the investment industry. There are some who can be quite insightful, but the vast majority are just pretenders.

The video below dates back to early March of 2009 and demonstrates how the mainstream financial media and Wall Street Analysts are as clueless as the next guy. When the financial markets were teetering on the edge and ready to wobble off the cliff, the media and the “experts” were completely oblivious to what was about to take place. They didn’t realize that the financial markets were ready to hit the skids; they couldn’t identify a Ponzi schemer when he was staring them right in the eyes; and they had no clue that the largest U.S. investment banks were about to go bankrupt just days before they did.

So it begs the question… Why the heck do investors still watch and listen to these actors? These glorified cheerleaders?

I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. Its good comedy. I am not telling you to stop watching these fools on TV, but just to realize that they are nothing more than mere entertainers to poke fun of. By all means, watch them for entertainment; not insight.  Take a look and decide for yourself: CNBC Financial Advice