I’m not at all impressed....
I don't know why, but something possessed me to at least
begin reading the book,
Johnny Carson, by Henry Bushkin, and I was shocked to discover that in 1970, according to Bushkin,
Carson had very little money!
This was in spite of the fact that he was represented by the William Morris Agency, one of the most well-known talent agencies in the USA.
And it was despite his having been advised by Arnold Grant, whom the husband of New York Consumer Affairs Commissioner Bess Meyerson described as a "razor-sharp tax attorney."
That this was possible only reinforces my personal belief that
the most important consideration in deciding whom to secure as a financial advisor is whether the individual (or the firm)
treats you as a unique individual.
(Actually, what I
really believe is the most important consideration is whether they genuinely care about you as a person, as a fellow human being—but that quality is so rare in this world that I think the chances of meeting such an expectation is virtually nil. It's my experience that the top priority of most people who have jobs where they make a lot of money is simply that they make a lot of money. The fact that they might be helping you out in the process is merely incidental.)
Accordingly, I rejected Facet Wealth as a possible financial advisor because they are an online service that was recommended to me, even though I specifically stated I was not interested in any online service.
And from what little I know about financial advisement, there are a bunch of questions one can ask (like, how old are you? What is your annual income? How much do you have in savings? What is your tolerance for risk? Are you retired? Etc.) and then you have these prepackaged portfolios with different asset allocations depending on your answers to these questions. But, who needs a financial advisor for that? You can program any computer to do that kind of work, like doing your taxes online with TurboTax or H&R Block.
This is why I also rejected the second firm that was recommended to me. Their response to my email made it clear that they had not paid any attention whatsoever to its content. If my foray into the financial markets turns out to be a success story, it will be because I had a willingness to think outside the box, and I want anyone who has me as a client to be able to do the same. Likewise, the reason I was able to teach students how to read who were previously unable to read a single word in English, even after attending public school for three, five, or even six years, was because I took a personal interest in them, and I assessed them as individuals, and I custom-designed an instructional program that addressed their unique circumstances and situations.
In Johnny's case, the problem was that though his tax attorney negotiated a contract that paid Carson $5,200,000 a year, the poor guy had access to only a small fraction of this amount—just 3%, to be exact. The rest was being deferred (given that the income tax rate on big earners when the deal was originally negotiated in 1967 was a whopping 70%). So, though the deal kept the government from devouring all of Carson's income, it also left the guy with practically nothing for savings or investment. Yes, it was conservative—but it was
too conservative—prudent to a fault, in Bushkin's opinion, given that there were other ways to handle the funds that would have left Johnny with more to spend.
To make matters even worse, after negotiating the deal, Arnold charged Carson a fee of $250,000! This was $94,000
more than what Carson would make that entire year, thanks to the arrangement that Arnold
himself had just put together! Grant therefore helped Johnny secure a loan to cover his fee, after which Carson promptly fired the dude!
And if this wasn't bad enough, the William Morris Agency was billing Carson 10% of the promissory $100,000 a week that Carson was pledged on paper, rather than the $3000 he was actually putting in his pocket—unwilling to wait until the talk show host retired to receive their commission on the other $97,000.
And
Carson made the same mistake when he hired his manager, investing his earnings and his faith in someone with a big reputation—Sonny Werblin—who arranged product endorsements where he and the company had equity in the merchandise, but Carson got nothing more than a flat salary; and who apparently set up a production company "for Carson" that did little more than rent posh office space for Werblin and pay the manager a nice salary.
This is why I can't see working with any group that operates using an assets-under-management (AUM) billing method. I want people who will help me to
make money rather than simply benefit by capitalizing on what I've already made on my own.
