Financial Advisors and Snake-Oil Salesmen

When did it start? Anyone could hang out a shingle and people would walk through the door and hand over their hard-earned money to be invested. We demanded no proof of experience or knowledge, yet when we go into a doctor's office with the flu we check out a nearby wall for diplomas to show he or she is qualified to make the important decisions. But we don't have a clue about the expertise of these so-called financial advisors, either in offices or on cable money shows. We just say, "We trust you and we'll give over our money, based on what you say." Suckers, all.

Each investment company has these salesmen ready and willing to take our money. We decide whether we want the funds to be invested in aggressive, conservative or moderate accounts. We receive statements showing what happens to the money and how much we're earning. We've learned lately -- think Bernie Madoff -- that those statements may be nothing more than pieces of paper. But now the snake-oil part -- it seems that these advisors don't really do much about moving our money around when things start going down. To get that kind of service, we must have a minimum amount of money in our accounts, most likely seven figures and over. The advisors really sold us something different from what we thought we were buying. We parted with our money for a fake product.

It's my thinking that most of the small-account investors wouldn't have lost so much money in the past few months if these advisors had acted on information available to them about what was happening in money markets. Instead, they sat on their butts and did nothing for most of us. I don't give them any breaks. I don't agree with those who say, gee, they were as surprised as the rest of us that the markets were going down so dramatically. That's not true. They should have known. What else are they paid to do? If it's simply taking money, putting it in accounts and letting it sit there, then hire a bunch of clerks.

We've been conned, folks. If there's one group of people who should lose their jobs, it's these financial advisors. The entire category of workers should be eliminated. And at least a few of them should be in perp walks.