Quote from magnum29464:
the reason I have a financial manager is because I have a nice sum of money that I personally am not comfortable managing myself as of the moment. I run a portion of the money but I keep the rest in a ubs account which is basically all bond funds and some mutual funds exposure but its pretty safe. I'm relatively new to the financial world so my confidence isn't there yet. its basically a little better than a bank account. I also learn a lot about things that the big brokerages have access to that I don't and how they work just by calling him up and asking questions. Sure he's just a salesman/broker but he also provides some insight that i would have never gotten. It doesn't surprise me that he doesn't completely understand hedge fund operations because I know his limitations and biases but he is still a good source for a non-pro like myself for things like understanding the real life details of things like a bond auction or purchasing a cdo. Sometimes i just ask him things to get a better understand what the big guys do or it could be simply to understand how they go about placing an order for something. I probably will always keep the account when I think about it....
Financial advisors are morons. And if they are not, they are not allowed to think & act outside of the company philosophy. The fact is that you are a bagholder.
If you have a serious sum of money, then:
A) educate yourself because a fool and his money are soon parted. Actually, they are lucky enough to get together in the first place.
B) understand your risk profile and investigate the products & markets you are interested in investing
C) if you decide you do want some professional money management, go for unique, word of mouth and esoteric routes rather than a big firm like UBS. In other words, don't be part of the herd.
Your financial advisor is nothing more than a salesman that has control over you because you fall for his/her pitch. It's basically a confidence scam, since you already state that you feel like you NEED his/her help. Yet, as shown in this thread, your financial advisor doesn't really know much and is BSing you. And you still feel like you NEED his/her help. This is while advertisements for financial advisors are plentiful and firms will hire ANYONE to do the job and SELL SELL SELL.
Like I said, it's a confidence scam.
P.S. Please don't tell me this joker had your money put into a CDO. That's a red flag bigtime.
