Ian Sender

How did your Wall Street guru do? Ian Sender

*Few stock-picking gurus do well for long *Last year's genius is this year's loser *Gurus' forecasts are correct less than 50% of the time *Gurus attract money which then dilutes high returns *Computer trading beats the best gurus consistently "My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest." Warren Buffett I have been in the financial services business for over 20 years. I have seen a lot of changes. I am ready to retire. I hope this book will be useful to the next generation of investors. Most of the changes in the financial advice business have involved the trend to the commoditization of most financial products. The trend has led to a bifurcation of the industry. On the one hand, Registered Investment Advisors, (RIA) provide advice for compensation as fiduciaries. This means they have a "fundamental obligation to provide suitable investment advice and always act in the clients' best interests." High-end RIAs provide personal service to wealthy clients with fees tailored to their millions of dollars invested. Their fee schedules are 0.01-0.05% not the retail rates of 1.5-3%. Clients get richer by compounding high returns. On the other hand, most retail brokers and financial advisors work for a major firm, building their sales the traditional way. They share commissions and fees as they offer their firms' products to customers with less than a $1 million. Most products are structured to provide the firm with revenue and are not the best products available for the average investor (earning 2.56%*). The trend leader in the industry is the discounter. For $5 or less, you can now buy and sell shares of companies, mutual funds, and market index funds (ETF) online without assistance. You can trade more sophisticated securities too. Direct to consumer insurers and agencies have joined discounters on TV.