Research experts to avoid economic challenges

Many Minnesota residents enlist the help of financial planners and other economic experts to help them prepare for retirement, college savings and other big financial commitments. While most people benefit from the help of people in such professions, a recent report released by the Wall Street Journal suggests that not all workers in the financial field employ sound judgment with their own money.

That may be cause for concern for the people who trust those individuals with their life savings. The report suggests that many stockbrokers and other financial professionals failed to disclose that they had filed for bankruptcy, incurred liens and had been subjected to other legal money-based redress for poor personal financial management. Their clients suffered too as a result of their personal economic challenges, with one man losing almost all of his savings to a stockbroker who hid his own personal mismanagement.

Professionals in many fields ranging from medicine to law to financial planning are governed by accrediting and licensing boards that monitor the actions of their members. In the case of this report, the Wall Street Journal learned that in many cases the financial experts had not disclosed their problems to their regulating body and so there was not record for their clients to examine regarding their defaults.

While it is devastating for a victim to lose his life savings to an unscrupulous financial planner it is also destructive for someone seeking debt relief to be taken advantage of by an opportunistic adviser. For people struggling under mountains of unpaid bills and who have lost their jobs, being swindled can bring about swift and detrimental legal recourse.

Despite the publication of this report, there are still many good and trustworthy professionals available to help both people wanting to invest and people needing debt relief to achieve their financial goals. Consumers can always contact the regulatory bodies that govern these professionals to learn more about their prospective advisers and may inquire of their advisers about any issues they have in the professionals' records.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, "Stockbrokers Fail to Disclose Red Flags," Jean Eaglesham and Rob Barry, Mar. 5, 2014