I've managed my own money since 1995, after discovering that my financial advisor had put me in funds that had high costs and under-performed the market. Since then, I've lived through two financial crisis, and grew my wealth despite them. I've been hired by wealthy individuals to interview financial advisors, give wealth management advice, and even invited to pre-IPO companies to share my experience on wealth management.
Despite my talk and many blog posts about financial planning advocating do-it-yourself financial planning, I've come to the conclusion that many people either won't do it or shouldn't do it. This book is written for those people who would like hire a financial advisor, and would rather vet their technical expertise rather than hire someone based on how good he looks, how good his office looks, the kind of car he drives, or the kind of ice cream he buys you.
In this book, I provide quick question and answer type interview questions suitable for vetting a financial advisor. In addition, I provide expanded answers so you can reason about the answers your prospective advisor gives so you can have a deeper understanding of the correct answer. I cover these aspects of financial advice:
- Ethics and Accountability
- Personal Finance
- Asset Allocation
- Retirement
- Estate Planning
What's different about this book?
- Question and Answer format. If you don't have the time to read the entire book, just one chapter will get you to the point where you can ask intelligent questions and vet the answers.
- Short. I don't try to explain the history of asset allocation and how to do it. I provide references so you can read extensively about it if you wish.
- Covers the three types of financial advisors, and discusses which ones you'll need and why.
- Covers many items even most financial advisors don't know, such as the SEPP 72(t) exception.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Questions and Executive Summary Answers
- Expanded Answers: Accountability
- Expanded Answers: Personal Finance
- Expanded Answers: Asset Allocation
- Expanded Answers: Retirement
- Expanded Answers: Estate Planning
- Conclusion
More Free Material by Piaw
More at
Piaw's Blog!
Testimonials
- "[The book], ostensibly about picking a financial planner, is an excellent primer for anyone interested in managing their money or interested in what is happening to their money. I read it cover to cover, some parts twice. Thanks." --- Jeff Wyndowe.
Book Specifications
Paperback: 6x9 Perfect bound format, 64 black and white pages.
Electronic Book, Kindle, ePUB, and PDF formats. 703KB (compressed)
Bibliography
Purchasing
Digital and Paperback copies now available at Amazon.
Buy at Amazon Kindle Store
Author's Biography
Piaw Na has worked as a pre-IPO employee at 3 companies (
Pure Software,
Mpath
Interactive/HearMe,
and
Google), and 2 unsuccessful
startups (
Escalate,
and
Mirapoint). He's acted as a sounding board for many high networth individuals as well as a "hidden buyer" for financial planners. He's given talks at pre-IPO companies about wealth management, engineering management, and company culture. He maintains
a blog at
http://piaw.blogspot.com.
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