Tips for picking a good financial adviser
Between a failed investment and fraud
Bernie Madoff ruined it for financial advisers this year. Under Madoff’s scheme, investors from schoolteachers to banks to high-profile celebrities lost up to $65 billion. The kicker? Few of them asked Madoff and his team of advisers to explain the oddly high returns they consistently earned, or the vague statements they received.
Madoff may be in jail now, but the days of blindly trusting financial advisers are over. Just how do you screen, hire, and monitor a trustworthy money manager? What red flags should investors keep an eye on? To find out, NEWSWEEK’s Nancy Cook spoke with Mark Britton, former senior counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission and founder of Avvo.com, a Web site that connects consumers to lawyers offering free legal advice. Excerpts:
