June 25, 2010
Money matters
Money, Money, Money
Did you see the astonishing financial news this week that British banks are allegedly amongst the best (and best-off) in the world? How can this be? These are after all the reckless institutions staffed by utter incompetents that the taxpayer bailed out.
To my mind, banks are dull utilities. And somehow those dull utilities have metamorphosised into utilities with a casino attached to them. Yet at the end of the day. I really want from my bank is someone I can rely on to manage my current account.
There can be few businesses more bomb-proof than banking. When the markets are on the up it’s a licence to print money. When the markets are on the down – well it seems much the same. And when the worst comes to the worst and you destroy the global economy with reckless greed and incompetence. Well the government bails you out with someone else’s money.
As gravy trains go, banking is rich in every sense of the word! But if anything, there is a financial career that is even more rewarding for failures. The strange world of the independent financial adviser.
Common sense would dictate that a financial adviser who has to use other people’s money to make money is not very good. After all, if he or she knew anything they would surely be rich making the best use of their own advice? But in my experience, a financial adviser is just an individual who charges commission for losing you money when the markets are bad – and doing the obvious when the markets are good.
How often do you hear about independent financial advisers who make their clients money? Or recommend a pension scheme or an insurance policy that they do not get a walloping great commission on ? I suppose there is a first time for everything – but I think we’ll see pigs flying before the truly independent financial adviser is discovered.
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